Finding Tim
by CerapinTech
Summary: The turtles aren't the only ones who care about family. Laura Whitten is a university student with a bright future. But when her bro, Timothy, goes missing, she moves back to New York to find him. She draws unwanted attention and her world is turned upside down as she learns about the Foot, the Kraang and a team of mutant ninja turtles.
1. Chapter 1-Home

Chapter 1: Home

The cab door opens and a young woman steps out. She has dark blond hair wrapped in braids under a baseball hat, wearing a baggy sweater and comfortable pair of jeans. She slings on a back pack and throws a duffle bag over her neck at the same time. She tapped the trunk of the cab and it popped open as the cabbie pulled the latch. She continued to pull out two large suitcases then slammed the trunk shut. She waved to the driver, and he pulled away from the curb.

Burdened with her bags, she turned to the apartment building she knew so well.

"Back again," she sighed.

She climbed up the front stairs and skillfully maneuvered herself and her bags though the doors, skipping in so that the door doesn't hit her on her way in. It wasn't the best kept building in New York City, but it was where she grew up with her brother and it held many fond memories.

She let herself into the three bedroom apartment on the second floor and set her suitcases down with a thud. They were heavy, but she didn't mind. She'd always been telling herself that she should be getting more exercise. She stretched her arms and cracked her neck as she threw the duffle bag on the couch which was followed by the back pack.

Her mother wasn't home yet, but it was only five o'clock and she knew that her mother always picked up extra shifts at the diner, filing in whenever someone was ill or couldn't make it. It wasn't just out of the kindness of her heart that she worked so much, she knew that cash was tight ever since dad left. Not that her mother wasn't a kind person, she was, in her own strict motherly way.

She always had a smile on her face whenever the two video chatted, even after dad left she kept her spirits up for her son who still lived with her. Her daughter had moved out to study abroad and she was so proud of her for sticking to school. She would tell her how she wished she had never dropped out. She would laugh and smile as she prodded her son to study more, try to be like his big sister, but he was still young and she always said that he needed to express that overzealous imagination of his.

Looking around the apartment, the girl could see the mess that had been left. Dishes left in the sink, food left out to spoil, dirt and garbage littering the floor. She frowned, remembering the spotlessness that once encompassed the rooms.

She lifted up her backpack again and went into her old room. She hadn't left much behind, but what she did still remained. The old blue and yellow copies of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books lined the bookshelves along one wall along with other, more mature mystery books and sci-fi series. Reading had been a passion at one point in her life, with weekly trips to the library and used book store, looking to collect all the old time favorites; although she never did find a copy of the Hardy Boys #4, The Missing Chums, to buy. In another bin lay balls of wool and crochet hooks along with both finished and unfinished projects she had deemed unable to make the trip with her. Her walls were littered with magazine cut outs of tropical places and amazing scenic shots followed by family pictures and some doodles she and her brother had made long ago. She looked at the little wooden desk on the wall opposite to her bed and eyed it critically. It was flimsy and small. It's not going to do. She made a mental note to get a bigger one.

In the meantime, it was time to unpack. She dragged in her suitcases and started emptying out files and equipment that was carefully packed inside, making piles on the bed, rickety desk and floor. When one was empty, she started systematically moving her book collection into the suitcase. When that one was full, she did the same with the other. The last of her books barely fit into the second suitcase and she shoved them both under her bed. No distractions.

She then started filling the newly emptied book shelf with her files and notes from her classes and various projects that she had been involved in at the university. The equipment she brought consisted of basic lab stuff such as a microscope, table top microcentrifuge, a low grade spectrophotometer, bottles of various chemicals, etc. It wasn't much, but it reminded her of what she could do and it helps to stave her curiosity at times. With her files unpacked, she moves onto her duffle bag, which was still on the couch.

She goes back into the main room to grab it from the couch when she notices the mess again. The clock read 5:45. Which means that her mother either took a cab instead of the subway, for whatever reason, and traffic was real bad, or she's agreed to stay late again to rack in more hours and probably won't be back until eight or nine. The girl sighed, thinking to some of the equipment in her room and how some of the pieces are worth at least a few shifts at the diner. Guilt nags at her, but she pushed it down.

 _Mum wouldn't want me to anyways_ , she thought to herself.

"In the meantime," she said aloud, duffle bag forgotten. She skirted to her room to grab her headphones from her backpack and spun around as she plugged them into her iPhone and turned up the tunes. She set to work cleaning the place up. By the time six thirty came around, the apartment was back to its former glory and completely grime free. She was singing to her music as she wiped off the last counter and threw the rag in the dirty laundry bin, which was overflowing. Consenting herself to run a few loads later, she grabbed her duffle bag and returned to her room. She placed the bag on her bed and was just about to unzip it when she door opened.

She spun around, turning off her music. _Here it is,_ she thought to herself as her heart started to beat faster, _it's just mum. Just go out and act normal._ She took a deep breath and stepped out into the main room. Her mother had stopped in the doorway and was staring at the clean apartment in shock. Her eyes moving around until they fell on her daughter, standing sheepishly in her bed room door way.

"Surprise," she said meekly as she walked up to her mother. She looked thinner and her eyes were tired and a little red. She looked at her daughter with love and her eyes filled with tears.

"Laura," she sniffed out pulling her daughter into a hug, "what are you doing here? What about school, your projects, your job? And the house is so clean."

"Can't live in a pigsty," Laura laughed, quoting her mother's words for whenever she or her brother had made a mess and tried to sneak away from it. Her mother pulled away and gave her a motherly disapproving look that only mothers can get just right.

"I'm taking some time off. My Profs understand, and I thought it would be nice to just come home for once, what with everything that's happened," Laura said looking down at the clean floor, not meeting her mother's eyes.

"Oh, Laura," she said, eyes saddening, "I think we both know why you've really come back. And I have to tell you to let the police handle it. They've got everything under control."

"No they don't!" Laura raised her voice back her head snapping up, "It's been four months already and they haven't found anything! Do you know how many missing person cases go unsolved?" Her eyes started tearing up like her mothers. "They're not going to find him, mum. They've probably given up by now. This is New York, they have more pressing cases than some kid who went missing four months ago. And let's face it, he isn't really a kid anymore, and it's not like we know if he was kidnapped. He probably left on one of his deluded adventures. The police don't even have a case. He's at a point in his life where he's old enough to leave home. Sure they'll keep an eye out for him, but they're not gonna be searching for him like I will."

Tears were flowing down both of their faces now. Laura's mother pressed a hand to her mouth as she stifled a sob, she knew her daughter was right.

Seeing her mother's anguish, Laura relented, "Sorry mom, if it's too hard, I can find another place while I'm here." She turned to leave but her mother grabbed her hand and pulled her into another hug.

"Don't you leave me too," her mother whispered into Laura's shoulder.

Laura returned the hug, and let her tears flow into her mother's hair. When had she grown so much taller than her? It had been too long since she'd been home, and she wasn't about to leave her mother like all the men in this family seem to be doing. She steeled herself, and pulled away from the hug, looking her mother in the eyes.

"I _will_ find him and bring him home."

The love in her mother's eyes renewed the determination she had been feeling these last few months. She had been planning this for a while, but was hoping that her stupid brother would come home on his own, as he had so many times in the past. But not this time, he had let her down, let her mom down, just like dad had done and Laura was gonna find him and knock some sense into him if it was the last thing she did.

"Go take a shower, I'll order pizza. I'm buying," she added as her mother began to protest that such expenses could not be spared. Laura pushed her mother into the bathroom and picked up the phone, dialing Antonio's number. She ordered two large pepperoni. The two of them could never eat that much by themselves, but it was like a family ritual to buy more than needed so that cold pizza could serve as snacks for the following few days.

The pizza came just as her mother was getting dressed after her shower. The delivery kid sported a red helmet over an afro and a red and white Antonio's T-shirt. After being paid, he hopped back on his motor bike and drove away. Laura watched through the window as the kid disappeared down the street. Moving her eyes up to the skyline she looked for the stars that were so familiar.

Movement from the building across the street caught her attention. There were two figures on the roof; one was pointing in the direction of the pizza kid and the second just shook their head and whacked first one over the head. The first rubbed his head as the second dragged him off out of site. Laura smiled to herself. No doubt some kids out past their bed time, one wanting a late night snack. She thought back to when she and her brother would sneak out to the roof past their bed times and have adventures; they would bring up their favorite action books and act out the scenes, most of the time making up their own stories as the night wore on.

"Something on your mind," her mother inquired as she came out in her pyjamas.

"Just thinking of when we used to sneak up to the roof," Laura replied opening one of the pizza boxes, the steam wafting up in spiral from the air currents made from the cardboard.

"Ugh," her mother scoffed, "you brats thought you were so sneaky, and ended up with the sniffles half the time. Staying out too late, what were you thinking?" Despite her words, her mother smiled at the memories of scolding her children and wiping their running noses.

Silence filled the gap, but it was a nice silence, full of fond memories. The more she thought, the more her determination grew at the thought of seeing her brother's goofy grin again.

"I promise mum," Laura said looking out the window again, "I'll find Timothy and bring him home."


	2. Chapter 2-Mutagen Hunt

Chapter 2: Mutagen Hunt

"Pizzaaaaaaaa," Mikey whined as Raph dragged him away from the side of the roof.

"We just ate," Raph told him pulling from the tails of his ninja mask, "Besides we need to concentrate on finding mutagen right now."

"Maybe there's some at Antonio's," Mikey perked up turning to Raph who whacked him over the head. "I'm serious man," he said rubbing his head, "We've gotta check this out, the pizza could be in danger." He pointed in the direction the pizza guy left in after making his delivery, "What if the Kraang are putting mutagen in the city's supply of pizza?! The streets are gonna be filled with pizza loving mutants!" His voice louder as the thought of the Kraang desiccating his beloved pizza bounced around his mind.

Raph smacked Mikey over the head again, "Yeah, cuz the city can't take another pizza crazy mutant."

"You totally get it," Mikey said, "We have to get to the pizza place before the Kraang do." He jumped onto the adjacent roof, skirting the route the pizza guy took minutes before.

"You gotta be kidding me," Raph sighed and started to follow his numbskull of a brother. Raph knew that nothing could stop Mikey from the sweet smell of Antonio's pizza, or any pizza for that matter, even if he did eat before they left the lair. Better to just go along with it for now, less of a hassle. The pizzeria is in their section of the city their covering tonight anyway.

Just as he was about to jump to the next roof, Raph's thoughts were interrupted by the jingle of his T-phone. He pulled the shell shaped device from his waist band, it was Leo.

"Anything?" Leo asked as Raph answered.

"We found the pizza guy," Raph said and gestured to Mikey to come over.

"Dude!" Mikey yelled into the phone, "We totally figured out what the Kraang are gonna do! They're going after the pizza!" Raph pushed Mikey's face away and help the phone up to his ear again.

"Mikey's hit the jack pot this time," he said sarcastically, "How's it going on your end?"

"Well, we found another burrito in a microwave," Leo sighed and Raph could hear the sound of metal clattering in the background followed by Donnie's muttering as he tinkered with his ooze tracker.

"Genius's toy still not working?"

"It works just fine!" Donnie yelled from the other end. Raph just rolled his eyes.

"We're getting nowhere like this," Raph said.

"Just keep looking," Leo said annoyed, "there's still too many canisters unaccounted for here, we're bound to find some.

"Technically there's a –"

"Don't give me the odds Donnie." Raph shook his head at Donnie's ever working brain, "You guys just make sure that your section of the city is covered tonight, and be sure to call if you find any bad guys to bash."

"No promises," Raph said smiling at the idea of a fight tonight.

Hanging up, Raph turned to Mikey who was looking over at one of the other buildings.

"What is it? Do you see something?" He asked.

"Isn't this where we took down the Stockman Pod?" Mikey asked, pointing out a building roof nearby.

"Yeah I guess that was around here." Raph said remembering the fight, and the look on his face when they stuffed into the dumpster. "Why? What're you looking for, another chance to beat the snot out of Spankboy?"

"No, I just thought that we've already looked around here, haven't we?"

"Not that I remember," Raph said, "Let's check it out." He jumped onto the roof, and started scanning for any sign of the glowing mutagen canisters.

After a long night of searching with nothing to show for it, the four brothers returned to their underground lair, hidden in the sewers. Mikey was playing with his Action Kick Unicorn man in front of the TV, Leo and Raph were competing in a Space Heroes Pinball tournament, and Donnie was in his lab trying to uncover the secrets to retro-mutagen.

He was sitting at his computer, imputing data from his latest series of failed experiments. But he wasn't discouraged; if there's one thing years of experience in the field of scientific study has taught him, it's that everything's gonna fail again and again until some fluke gets it right. The hard part is finding the fluke. Until then, all you can do is try to understand why it's all wrong.

Metalhead sounded off a series of beeps and Donnie stopped typing to listen. "Interesting," he said translating the robotic language in his head. He glanced over to a rack of test tubes that Metalhead just finished analyzing, that contained various samples of mutant DNA. Uploading him with AI has allowed Metalhead to help run tests and analyse Donnie's samples. He had just finished running specs and the results made no sense.

"Why would there be so much phosphate?" Donnie asked Metalhead reading graph of absorbances, "There's no way DNA can remain stable like that. Maybe the mutagen is altering the polymerases by adding phosphate groups to the . . . No that wouldn't work. Then it would be too reactive, the amino acids wouldn't bond like that. What about primers? No same thing, wouldn't bond right."

Donnie scratched his head and sitting back down at his computer. He brought the graph up on the screen, "Let's see . . . so we got extra phosphate for whatever reason, what else . . . There seems to be trace amount of calcium? Calcium? Wha—why? _Ugh_. That would be why my amplifications aren't working at all. There's calcium inhibiting the whole process. Stupid divalent metal ions. Now I gotta come up with a method that allows for rapid DNA replication that won't stall in the presence of calcium, unless I can remove it. But it doesn't make sense, where are these foreign groups coming from? What do they accomplish? I can't even rely of the A260:A280 ratio to determine DNA purity!"

"Donnie?" Looking up from the jumble of incoherent mess on the screen, Donnie saw Leo poke his head into the lab, "everything okay? You were talking to yourself again."

"Just peachy," Donnie sighed, "I'm trying to figure out exactly how the mutagen works and what it does to DNA. But it's proving more troublesome than originally thought."

"Well, it _is_ a highly dangerous substance from another dimension meant to mutate the entire world," Leo said lightly as he peered over Donnie's shoulder at the screen, "Woah. What's with the scribbles?"

"That, dear brother, is the absorbances of mutated DNA."

"Uh huh," Leo said nodding, waiting for further explanation, "And what do the scribbles say?"

"They say that there's a lot of crap that don't belong which is also gonna interfere with further analysis."

"So it's gonna take a while?"

"I wish I could say otherwise," Donnie looked around his lab, "it would go faster if I had better equipment, but at least I got Metalhead to keep me company." He patted Metalhead who responded with a series of beeps and clicks, "Yeah, I suppose Tim's here too. But he's not much of a conversationalist."

Leo walked up to the Pulveriser and placed a hand on the glass, it was cold. "Any head way on getting him unfrozen?" Leo asked remembering the way Donnie tricked him into drinking the mixture that turned him into a block of ice.

"No," Donnie replied quietly coming up beside Leo. Leo knew Donnie felt responsible after all that happened with the Pulveriser; getting caught up with the Kraang when they first met, then him joining the Foot Clan, his mutation, then him going all Mutagen Man on them and attacking April . . . it hasn't been a good run as of late.

"I haven't had much time, what with the mutagen hunts and trying to find a retro-mutagen."

"Don't push yourself Donnie," Leo said patting his shoulder, "make sure to get some rest and let me know if there's anything I can help with." Leo knew that Donnie had been staying up way too late, and sometimes not sleeping at all, working himself to find a cure and to help April's father who was mutated into a giant bat.

Leo left the lab, heading for bed, leaving Donnie to contemplate. Sure, it's his top priority to find a cure for April's dad, and it's what he wants to do. On the other hand, Timothy was his responsibility. He couldn't just leave him stuck in a jar to thaw out for the next seventy years.

"But even if I do manage to thaw you out," Donnie told the Pulveriser, "you're still a mutant. Mr. O'Neil isn't the only one who needs a cure. So retro-mutagen should be the priority. Also this way, we don't run the risk of you getting into the mutagen again and attacking us again." Donnie smiled at the Pulveriser, happy with his logic. Well, his mind was, but his gut held the guilt. He'd been side lining Tim's problem for too long, and he was getting nowhere with the retro-mutagen. Might as well take a break and try to figure out how to thaw Tim out.

Looking back at his old records, he recreated the substances that would cause the reaction and started picking the whole thing apart. Clinking test tubes and humming machinery caused Leo to once again poke his head into the lab. He saw an alert Donnie still bustling away, his tongue peeking out as he was mixing reagents together, causing mini explosions, and writing down measurements. Leo watched him for a few minutes and noticed that is hands were a little shaky, and that his eye lids kept dropping lowed. He cleared his throat after Donnie nearly pipetted a blue liquid into his coffee mug.

The noise didn't register right away and it took Donnie a second to realize Leo was standing right in front of him.

"Oh," Donnie said staring at Leo, "I didn't know you were still up."

"I wasn't," Leo replied matter of fact, "and neither should you be." Grabbing his brother by the wrist, Leo led Donnie out of the lab.

"But I just have one more thing to do," Donnie said trying to fight off the fatigue, and pulled out of Leo's grip.

"Donnie," Leo chased after him, "come on, it's late. It's time to sleep. You know, _sleep_. The thing you do when you're tired."

Donnie stopped and stared at Leo again, swaying slightly. He suddenly shook his head to wake himself up, "Yeah, okay. Sleep. Right. Just let me clean up a bit." He started gathering up test tubes and turning off equipment. Leo helped Donnie store his samples his fridge and clean up the cluttered work space. He then led Donnie back to the bedrooms and watched Donnie fumble for his door knob. When he was happy that his stubborn brother was in for the night, he entered his own room and collapsed in his own bed. He was asleep in minutes.


	3. Chapter 3-Mission, Start

Chapter 3: Mission, Commence

The last time Laura had spoken to her brother was via video chat. He had seemed excited about his newest adventure. The night before, he witnessed an epic battle between a team of vigilante ninjas in green costumes and an evil maniac in a super powered, evolving battle suit. The way he described how the ninja heroes defeated the robo manic with a nothing more than a beehive and chains told Laura that her brother had found a new hero to admire, and knew that he'd try to join them in his own way. She pitied the guys who would have to deal with her brother.

He showed her the costume he got, green spandex with a yellow breast plate and fake rubber muscles. Laura couldn't help but laugh as her brother showed off his radical fighting techniques. It was pathetic and consisted mostly of him shouting, and she wasn't afraid to let him know.

"If you go out like that, you won't even need you martial arts, the bad guys will be laughing too much to put any real resistance," she told him between chuckled.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Timothy told her throwing another punch and knocking out an imaginary enemy, "I may not have official training, but I have years of practice. Remember when we would sneak onto the roof at night and battle like the superheroes?"

"Yeah," Laura replied with skepticism, "and might I remind you that even when you were supposed to win like the story said, you lost. Give it up Timmy, you could never beat me."

"My name isn't Timothy anymore," he said puffing out his chest, "From now on, I am the Pulveriser!"

"The Pulveriser," she said, "not bad . . . what about a catch phrase. You need a catch phrase for when you're about to lay a smack down."

"You can't just have one phrase," he said exasperatingly, "and you don't come up with them beforehand. They have to come naturally. For example, give me a scenario."

"Alright . . . It's the middle of the night, and you spot a gang of thieves sneaking away with the loot. You step out of the shadows and say . . ."

He thought for a little while, "Well, well, well. Lookie what I found, I think you boys forgot to pay for that. Then I go all ninja on their butts."

"That's not good enough. 'I think you forgot to pay for that'. You're just stating the obvious there. You need to add something, make it cool sounding."

"I think you forgot to pay for that, how about I help you pay your tab."

"No, not quite right," Laura pondered the situation, "I got it! What about, 'I think you forgot to pay for that. But don't worry, I accept cash, check or teeth.'"

Laura smiled at the fond memory. Tim's mind was always a little out there, but it was one of the things she loved about him. He was never afraid to be himself, and always strived to be something better, although he was impatient and tended to go for the short cut instead of working towards something. That was where the siblings differed.

Where Timothy sat around dreaming of going on adventures and fighting crime as a real hero, Laura found her passion in the world of science. Molecular biology and forensics to be accurate. She moved away from home to go to University and graduated with honours. She's now working towards her masters and is involved in various projects around campus. She'd even managed to publish some of her work, with the help of her profs of course.

But her success aside, this was family, and family comes first. It doesn't matter that her brother is a fat, lazy day dreamer who is far too rash in his actions and causes their mother to worry. It doesn't matter if he left of his own volition or not. It doesn't matter what state she finds him in, she _will_ find him and bring him home.

O

Last night, Laura had a long talk with her mother. Tim had been doing a lot better in the few weeks leading up to his disappearance. He even joined the Chris Bradford dojo to become a real ninja. Even though it was a rather violent sport, her mother put it, at least he was getting out of the house and doing something, although she didn't know how long it would last. It wasn't long after that the Tim came home one day, declaring that he was officially a ninja. Her mum just laughed it off, "He truly has a wondrous imagination."

The dojo was the last place Timothy was supposed to be, so Laura decided to start there. She stood outside the door, gazing up at the poster sporting Chris Bradford himself throwing a punch. A glorified money sucker was all Laura could describe it as. Plaster some hot shots name, advertise until the audience is sick of it, then watch the kids come running with hopes of becoming just like their hero.

Laura pushed open the door and was greeted by the stench of sweat and the sound of grunting men pounding away at each other. The place was emptier than she thought it would be. _Guess martial arts aren't all that big anymore_ , she thought, a little disappointed.

She talked with a large, tough looking man who in charge of this branch. He told her that yes, Timothy was a member at this dojo, but that they hadn't seen him in some time.

"He's been missing for four months now and this was the last place he was supposed to have been," Laura explained.

"Yes," the man, Carl Gritch, said, "As I told the police four months ago, he left the dojo after our session and hasn't been back since."

Laura wasn't sure if he was telling the truth. She always had trouble figuring out what people said is true, which is why she believes what the scientific evidence tells her rather than what people tell her to believe. She asked Gritch about how her brother was doing in his lessons.

"To be brutally honest," he replied shaking his head, "he wasn't but out for this. Most of the time, he just made a fool of himself. But he just laughed it off and kept on going."

 _Sounds like Tim_ , Laura thought. She was just about done here and she asked one last question, "Have you ever heard of the Foot Clan?"

"The Foot Clan? No, can't say I have. Why do you ask?" It was fleeting, but she thought she saw something flash across his face. Anger? Fear? Surprise? Whatever it was, she knew that he was hiding something.

"It was just something Tim mentioned before he disappeared," she said, hiding her knowledge under ignorance, "He said he joined a group called the Foot Clan. I was thinking it was just a group of boys from the dojo who would hang out together or something, but maybe I'm wrong. But still, this Foot Clan is the best lead I have on him since this has led nowhere." She watched as Gritch's eyes hardened.

 _What are you hiding,_ she thought. Knowing that she wasn't going to get anything out of him, she left after bidding him goodbye and left after giving him a contact number.

After the strange girl left, Gritch made a call from his office.

"What is it?" a gruff voice on the other end asked.

"We may have a problem," Gritch explained, "Some girl was just in here asking questions about her missing brother, his name was Timothy."

"Who?"

"A few months back when the master was looking into expanding his army he conducted an experiment that would enhance soldiers physical abilities."

"The mutagen experiments? What about them?"

"The guy she's looking for was the one who volunteered to be the first."

"You mean the Pulveriser? That fool?" laughter flooded the line, "What did you tell her?"

"Just that one day he stopped coming, and that if she found out anything to let me know."

"So she left and that was it? What's the problem? Don't tell me you're just wasting my time."

"No, she was asking about the Foot Clan. The way she was talking has me thinking she's going to be digging around and getting in the way."

"Great, just what we need. Who is this girl anyway?"

"Her name is Laura Whitten," Gritch said reading off the number on the business card she had given him.

"Whitten?" the voice on the other end asked, "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Would you like me to look into it, sir?"

"No," the voice grunted, "You'd probably just mess it up. I'll deal with this personally."

"Yes, Mr. Bradford," Gritch said, hanging up.

On the other end on the line, Dogpound slams down the receiver, smashing the phone under his giant hands.

"I want you to run a name," he tells one of the nearby Foot soldiers, "Laura Whitten. I want to know everything there is to know about her. And make it fast. I want it all by tonight."


	4. Chapter 4-Who is She?

Chapter 4: Who is She?

 _"Mwa ha ha ha ha, now that I have Dr. Right nothing can stop me!" Skele-Lord laughed as he showed off his captive, a young woman scientist with short brown hair tied up at his feet._

" _Oh, no!" Dr. Blip exclaimed, his lips not matching the words, "With Dr. Right as his prisoner, he can force her to build a weapon of mass destruction, oh yes he can. Caption Dash, what are we going to doooooooooo!?"_

" _Quit your deplorable whining Dr. Blip," Captain Dash Coolstar says stepping forward pointing toward his enemy, "I will stop you, yes I will, and rescue the doctor with the combined power of this team, I will right now."_

 _The team combines into Super Robo Mecha Force and stomps Skele-Lord into the ground. Dr. Right is picked up in the giant robot hands and her bindings are broken._

" _I thank you ever so much," Dr. Right says, "I only wish I could be of help to you and your team."_

"Man, Skele-Lord just doesn't give up," Mikey said. He was lying on his plastron in front of the TV, "But that Dr. Right chick is awesome."

"Why would you research how to build a weapon out of something harmless like that anyway," Raph commented looking up from his comic book, "Pretty stupid if you ask me."

"But now they've got another scientist on their team," Leo said, "maybe they'll upgrade Super Robo Mecha Force, making it stronger than ever before."

"Seems find of forced," Raph said, returning his attention to his comic.

"Hey guys, get in here," Donnie said, poking his head out of his lab, "I'm picking up Foot activity."

Mikey, Raph and Leo entered the lab and walked over to the desk where Donnie was sitting in front of his computer.

"What's up Donnie," Leo asked walking around to see the screen.

"I wrote up a couple of programs awhile back to help monitor the Kraang and the Foot. One of them just found this," he clicked a link and a bunch of files opened. The one on top had a picture of a young woman with long, dark blond hair, a round face, blue eyes and a big grin on her face.

"What is this?" Leo asked

"They've been researching her," Donnie said, "Her name is Laura Whitten. She's a student at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. She's already excelled in her program, is involved in various projects across campus and has even published her own scientific paper. Already got job offers at the University once she graduates."

"What do the Foot want with a university student from Baltimore?" Raph asked, "What's so special about her? Why not someone closer? There's got to be some other smart scientist somewhere in the city."

"Actually, she's originally from New York. She's taken some time off from school for personal reasons and is back in town now," Donnie said, clicking through some other files, "Apparently her brother went missing around four months ago, and the police haven't found anything."

"So she's back in town, and the Foot are interested in her," Leo said straightening up.

"Like I said," Raph repeated, "What's so special about her?

"I don't know," Donnie said looking up, "I mean, she's majoring in molecular genetics and minoring in forensic science. I can see that they'd be interested if Shredder is trying to make some sort of new mutant, but he doesn't really need a specialist if he's got some mutagen. And it's not like she's a prodigy or anything either. Like Raph said, there're more accomplished people he could choose."

"So why her?" Mikey spoke up.

"That's what we're going to find out," Leo responded.

Once dusk came, the four brothers found themselves on the roof tops once again. They overlooked the apartment building where the Whittens lived.

"Hey this is the place that got the pizza last night," Mikey said turning to his brothers, "you think the pizza guy will come back?" The response he got was a slap in the head from Raph.

At the questioning looks from his brothers Raph explained, "We checked around here for mutagen last night. And Mikey wanted to ask them to share their pizza with him."

Leo rolled his eyes, "Which apartment is hers," he asked Donnie.

"Second floor, on the west side," he replied checking his T-phone, "You can see in it from here," he pointed to one of the windows where you could see into the kitchen. As he was talking, Laura Whitten walked into the kitchen and opens the fridge, "Her, that's her."

"How'd you wanna bet she's eating the leftover pizza from last night," Mikey nudged Raph.

"Shut up Mikey."

She closed the fridge with a half empty pizza box and a can of pop, "Hah, called it," Mikey exclaimed, receiving dirty looks as his voice rang out louder than it should have. "Oops," he chuckled nervously.

"Well," Leo said, "at least we know she's home."

"So, what?" Raph said, "Do we just wait here all night watching to see if anything happens? Cuz that sounds like a crappy plan. We don't even know what the Foot wants with her."

"Would you rather go looking for mutagen?" Leo retorted.

"Beats sitting around doing nothing."

"She's leaving," Donnie whispered. While they were arguing, Laura Whitten received a call from her cell phone. She was talking excitedly to whoever was on the other end while pulling on a coat and balancing a cold slice of pizza in her mouth. "What now Leo?" Donnie asked, following her movements with his eyes as best he could through the window.

"We still don't know what's going on here. Raph and Donnie, you guys search the apartment and see if you can find anything about why the Foot would be interested in her. Me and Mikey will keep an eye on Laura Whitten, in case anything happens tonight."

They spit up and Raph watched as Leo slunk down to ground level and hid in the ally's while Mikey kept watch from above. Donnie jimmied the window and they snuck in through the kitchen. The left over pizza box was left on the table, forgotten along with an unopened can of Sprite. A quick look around the small kitchen and living room found nothing.

Raph entered one of the small bedrooms. There were posters of superheroes on the walls and a shelf with comic books and action figures against one of the walls, "Looks like Mikey's room," Raph said aloud to himself, "only not as disgusting." He walked over to the messy desk and pushed some papers around.

"Raph, come look at this," Donnie said from the next room.

"What the—" Raph said taking in what he was seeing. The room was tidy. The tall bookshelf held messy binders and some weird machines, like you'd find in Donnie's lab. But that's not what got his attention. Plastered over the walls was a collage of newspaper articles and printed pages of information and pictures. Some had sticky notes attached to them or just writing directly on the page. Strings fanned out like a spider web, connecting certain pieces of information to locations or people, with annotations and interpretations in hand writing around it. "What is this?"

"I think she's looking for her brother," Donnie said. He pointed out one flyer. Written beside it in red marker he read, _Last place he was supposed to be. Start here._ The flyer sported a picture of a muscular man from a martial arts dojo, throwing a punch at an invisible enemy. The Chris Bradford Dojo. "Looks like he was a member at the Chris Bradford Dojo."

"So he's an enemy? He's a member of the Foot Clan?"

"Well, it's possible. They only recently started building Foot Bots to act as soldiers. If he went missing four months ago, it's possible he was recruited into the Foot Clan and got in too deep."

"So what, he couldn't bother to call home? Or do you think we could have pounded on him too hard."

"Well, I can hack into the Foot's system and find out what happened to him—"

"Laura!" The turtles froze as the voice of a woman sounded through the apartment, "Are you home. You left the pizza out." Footsteps came closer to the room.

"Laura," the woman opened the door, "I hear you talking to yourself, you can at least answ—"

The room was empty. The woman sighed, "I'm hearing things now. Where did that girl go? It's late too late to be out." She closed the door behind her as she went to put the pizza box away.

"Too close," Raph whispered, emerging from his hiding place behind the bed.

"Let's get out of here," Donnie said peeking out from behind the bookcase, "I think we've got enough."

 **O**

Mikey flipped between the buildings, watching Laura Whitten as she fast walked down the darkened street. He was thinking about the leftover pizza in the Whitten's apartment that Laura was eating earlier . . . chilled, hardened cheese, chewy pepperoni . . . He almost missed Leo's signal from the ally. Instantly, he was alert. He maneuvered down the side of the building and came to a silent crouch beside his brother.

Leo signaled and Mikey looked across the street, seeing what had caught Leo's attention. In the shadows on the roof tops farther up the street he saw a flash of black with glowing red eyes. Foot Bots. Those crazy things were a recent addition to Shredders army, and the turtles only just recently learned how to outsmart them. They were also following Laura Whitten, to where ever she was hurrying off to at this late hour.

"Do you think they know we're here," Mikey whispered.

"No," Leo replied, not taking his eyes off his enemy, "they would have attacked if they saw us. We just have to be extra cautious. I'll scope ahead for an ambush spot, you stay back and keep an eye on the girl."

"Can do chief."

Leo slipped away down the ally and made his way to the roofs. He kept his eyes on the Foot Bots he spotted earlier, there were five Foot Bots that he could see, easily keeping up with Laura Whitten's fast walking pace. He skirting around them and giving them a wide birth as he over took them and foraged ahead, looking for a spot to spring an ambush and get the upper hand in a fight. He saw a perfect spot a few blocks away and raced forward to inspect it.

On street level, Laura checked the note she scribbled on her hand and looked up at the building in front of her. _This is it,_ She thought as she pushed the doors open.

Mikey saw the Foot Bots stop on top of the building Laura Whitten went in. "Not good," Mikey said to himself.

Leo's T-phone buzzed. Message from Mikey.

 _Girl went into a building, bots r following._

"So much for an ambush," Leo muttered and rushed back to his brother. He found Mikey in the ally next to the building, "What's happening?"

"Dude, she went into that building and the Foot Bots followed her in—" A scream from inside the building cut him off. The doors to the building opened and the Foot Bots came out dragging the girl between them. She was struggling, dragging her feet, kicking at the robots legs, but all in vain. They dragged her over to a black van parked by the curb and threw her in the back.

"Move," Leo said drawing his katanas. He sliced through the first bot as the truck doors slammed shut. Mikey went after the Bots by the back of the van and smashed in one of their heads.

"Turtles!" A deep voice boomed causing the brothers to freeze, "And I thought this was gonna be a quiet night." Dog Pound stepped out from behind the van, "Get going," he commanded the driver and who peeled away down the road.

"No!" Leo lunged after the van but Dog Pound intercepted him, swinging a giant hand toward him. He blocked with his katanas. They exchanged blows as Mikey fought off the Foot Bots.

"Dude," Mikey called out, "This ain't goin well." He kicked a bot back and blocked a sickle flying toward his head and still more converged on him.

Leo managed to push Dog Pound back and leapt to his brother's side. More Foot Bots appeared from the ally's and rooftops, outnumbering them. They stood back to back, holding off the bots that tried to get close.

"Smoke," Leo said. Mikey pulled out a smoke bomb from his belt and smashed it on the ground. Purple smoke filled the air as the brothers disappeared from the streets. There were too many bots to fight off. That plus the threat of Dog Pound was too much for just the two of them to handle.

They were safely on a roof a couple blocks away when they stopped to discuss what happened.

"Dude," Mikey panted, "they got her."

"Yeah, and there were way too many Foot Bots there for a simple kidnapping. Something's up with this girl."


	5. Chapter 5-Devistating Fight

Chapter 5: Devastating Fight

Chris Bradford sent out a message to the other Foot Bots to keep an eye out for any of the turtles in the vicinity. It wasn't long until a report came in. The purple and red turtles were spotted on the roof top of the Whitten apartment.

"Ambush them," he smiled menacingly as he made his way toward their location with a legion of Foot Bots in tow.

"Leo's not picking up," Raph said.

"You think something happened?" Donnie asked looking out over the city from his vantage point. The two of them had climbed onto the adjacent building to the apartment and were trying to figure out what to do next.

"I don't know what happened. For all we know, Mikey tried to follow the pizza guy again."

"I guess we should head to the rendezvous point—" Donnie stopped mid-sentence as he spotted something moving in the shadows. Raph turned to see what tipped his brother off. A familiar metallic screech and red glow made them draw their weapons and ready their battle stances.

"Foot Bots?" Donnie exclaimed.

Raph cracked his neck and smiled sadistically, "And here I thought that we weren't gonna have any fun tonight." He jumped at the closest bot, his sais singing as they pierced the metallic hide. The bot fell in pieces as more bots advanced. Donnie and Raph fought them off, but it soon became apparent that they were in over their heads.

"Why are there so many of them," Donnie asked slicing a bot with his naginata blade.

"The more the merrier," Raph grunted, throwing one off the building. He backed up as more bots climbed onto the roof.

"Might I suggest I retreat," Donnie said nervously eyeing the increasing number of enemies.

"Hold on," Raph said as he took down another three one after another, only to have six more take their places. One raced forward and delivered a blow that Raph failed to block. He sailed backward and slammed into Donnie, bringing them both to the ground.

"You know," Raph said picking himself up, pulling Donnie after him, "retreat may not be such a bad idea."

They were pushed up against the edge of the building and had no way to go other than down. They jumped off into the alley, springing from one wall to the next, zig zagging their way down to ground level. The bots followed them, simply falling right to the ground. They slammed into the concrete, leaving holes where their feet landed.

The turtles raced around the maze of alleys, trying to lose their pursuers but to no avail. Every corner they turned, more bots were there to slow them down. It wasn't long before they were surrounded in a small, secluded parking lot.

Donnie and Raph stood back to back in the middle of a circle of Foot Bots. No one moved.

"What are they waiting for?" Raph asked, anxiously twirling his sais.

"Don't jinx it," Donnie said. He didn't like that they weren't moving. They were keeping them trapped, possibly until reinforcement arrived, although they probably wouldn't need them. There were about thirty Foot Bots to the two turtles. And although Donnie was sure Raph wouldn't have a problem with such numbers, Donnie wasn't much of a melee fighter.

"Trapped turtles, just the way I like them," Dog Pounds deep voice came from behind the line of bots. His mutant figure towered over them as he approached.

"Who let the dogs out," Raph sang nudging Donnie who chuckled nervously.

"Keep making jokes while you can," Dog Pound said, "you're not getting away from this one."

"Keep thinking that," Raph yelled. Donnie felt Raph tense up and he readied himself for what was coming next. Raph lunged toward the line of bots and started hacking away, Donnie stayed by his brother, covering his back, making sure no one slowed him down. Their formation held for a while, until Dog Pound joined the fight.

He jumped into the fray, literally, landing between Donnie and Raph. With one swing of his massive arm, he sent Donnie flying, slamming into a lamp post. Groaning he blocked a Morning Star and slapped his bo against his assailants legs, sweeping them out from under him. Donnie got to his feet, and assessed his situation.

 _This is so not good,_ He thought as he was surrounded again, only this time he was alone.

Raph was locking in combat with Dog Pound. His usual fighting tactic wasn't much use when up against an opponent like Dog Pound. It was hard to pumble someone who was twice your size and covered in armoured spikes. So he took to stabbing weak spots and dodging blows that he wouldn't be able to block with only brute strength.

He was gaining the upper hand when he heard his brother cry out in pain.

"Donnie!" he spun around, distracted. The distraction was all Dog Pound needed. He pounded down on Raph's back with his massive hand, grinding his into the ground. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Raph twisted out of the hold and flipped onto Dog Pound's head, hammering blows until he was thrown off and leaving Dog Pound stunned for the moment.

With Dog Pound down Raph rushed to Donnie's aide. He was surrounded by bots, way more than he could ever handle, his bo staff lay broken to the side. Anger swelled inside Raph as he smashed his way through the mess of Foot Bots toward his brother, who was trying his best to fight of the robots with hand-to-hand combat and a kunai knife.

Seeing his brother making his way toward him, Donnie redoubled his efforts, throwing off a bot that had jumped on his back and stabbing it with the kunai, but the small knife did little damage. The bot stood back up and an arm armed with a katana sprouted from its back.

Raph took out another three bots before Dog Pound got back in the game. He grabbed Raph by the shell and threw across the parking lot. Raph flipped around in the air and landed on his feet, sliding a few feet before stopping. He glared at Dog Pound and watched as the bots started to overpower Donnie. Panic ran through Raph's head as he watched his brother get dragged to the ground.

"DONNIE!" he shouted running forward, "Hang on I'm coming!"

"Gotta get through me first," Dog Pound taunted.

Hatred replaced the panic. Raph ran right for Dog Pound drawing back his sais, ready to strike. Dog Pound anticipated the straight on attack and was surprised when the turtle slid between his legs, racking his sais across his legs, bringing his to the ground.

Raph was up again and surging toward the mob of bots. He couldn't see Donnie underneath them all. Wrath flooded his as his eyes went white with rage. He tore through the bots like they were nothing, his protective instinct kicking in. He slashed and stabbed and tore at the robots, nothing slowed him down. It wasn't until the last bot was in pieces that Raph noticed what had happened.

He looked around. "Donnie?" There was no answer, "Donnie!" Fear. Donnie was gone. They took him. While Dog Pound had distracted him, they dragged Donnie away. "

"DONNIE! You nerd, where did you go!" Raph yelled.

"Heh, heh, heh," Dog Pound laughed, picking himself up off the ground, "That's one down."

A metallic screech sounded from multiple points around the parking lot. "You have got to be kidding me," Raph panted as at least another twenty bots filled the lot. No time to worry about Donnie, this fight wasn't over.

"One more to go," Dog Pound pointed toward the lone turtle, "Take him down."


	6. Chapter 6-An Offer

Chapter 6: An Offer

Laura Whitten groaned and opened her eyes, "Flv-fls-fraaaaaa—" she mumbled instead of the curse word lingering on the tip of her tongue. Her head was pounding, a sharp pain stabbed into her brain where the ninja hit her. Sitting up, she pressed her hands to her head in a poor attempt to alleviate the pain when a sudden motion caused her to fall back onto the hard floor.

"Okay," she said aloud, "I'm in a vehicle." Another stab of pain racked her skull, causing her to wince. Looking around the small compartment she took in the dirty carpet, the dented walls, and a small window leading to the driver's seat.

Cautiously, she peered through the window. One of the ninjas was driving. She tried to guess where they were from the scenery she could see out the windshield, but it was dark and they were moving along pretty fast.

"Great," she said, sliding down the wall, sitting on the hard floor again. A sudden thought struck her, "Fuck, mom." She fumbles through her pockets and pulled out her cell phone. She stared at it for a second, then glanced toward the window at the driver. _They didn't think to take it away. . ._ She thought. "Retards," she muttered, clicking the power on. It was already nine and she knew her mother would be worrying about her.

Although her first thought was to call her mother and reassure her that she was fine, Laura's logical mind switched on. She knew she should call the police first for help.

 _Wait,_ She thought, i _Why the hell should I call the cops for help. It's because of them that I have to find Tim on my own, their fault I'm in this mess. I don't need no stupid cops swinging their bacon around. I can handle this myself, just like I'm gonna find Tim._

With this logic in mind, she dialed home. The phone only rang once before her mother snatched it up, "Laura?"

"Hey mom," Laura replied, trying to sound casual despite her predicament.

"Young lady where have you been," she went into full mother mode, "Do you have any idea how worried I was. I thought I heard you talking to yourself like you always do, but when I checked in your room, it was empty. You can't scare me like that."

"Mom, mum," Laura tried to get a word in, "Mom, I'm fine. I just got a call from one of my Profs, they said that they were sending samples from one of our projects to a lab in the city and they wanted me to pick them up." _That part was true, no story telling there_.

"It's been almost two hours."

"I know, I'm sorry. I ran into some old friends from high school and we got to talking and I guess I lost track of time." _And let the lies begin._

There was a pause, "You always were a scatter brain."

Laura laughed at that, "Yap."

"Well, hurry up and come home already," her mother insisted, "I'll get a snack ready and we can watch some of that show you were going on about. What was it . . .?"

"Grody to the Max" Laura smiled at the thought. Then she remembered her current situation. "Actually," she said thinking quick, "I won't be coming home tonight."

"What? Why not? Has something happened?"

"No no," Laura replied quickly, "It's just . . . I have some . . . lab work, that my prof wanted me to do. The one that called me earlier. They have some equipment here in the city that they don't have on campus and they got permission for me to run some tests. It's on the other side of town, so I thought it would just be easier to find a hotel or something over there instead of coming home."

"Oh, you don't have to do that," her mother urged, "come home for the night."

"I've actually got to let the test run over night, and check the readings on it in the morning," Laura told her, thinking quick, "So it would be pointless to go home then make my way all the way over there again in the morning. It's just easier this way."

"You're not telling me something," her mother said, not buying any of it. Laura was silent for a moment, debating what to tell her.

"I'm looking for Tim," she finally said, which wasn't a total lie, "I found a lead." An idea popped into her head that would buy her at least a few days away from home, "I'll be going out of town for a couple days. Don't know how long it'll take."

Her mother was silent on the other line, "You're leaving?" She whispered.

Laura felt a pang run through her gut, "I'm not leaving you!" She said a little louder than intended, she glanced back at the driver's window, "I'm coming back, I promise. I'll just be gone a few days. I'll call or e-mail when I can. I'm gonna find Tim mom. I'm not leaving . . ."

"I love you, honey."

"I love you too, mom." The van rumbled to a stop, and she heard the driver get out of the van. Fear raced through her at the unknown scenario that awaits her, "I gotta go mom. See you later." She hung up without waiting for a reply. She then hid her phone in her shoe, where they hopefully wouldn't search.

The back door to the van swung open and Laura stood up to face . . . a teenager? A girl stood in outside flanked by two ninjas, dressed in black with a metal breastplate and shoulder pads. She has short black hair with long bangs and this weird red eye makeup.

"Laura Whitten?" The girl asked stepping into the van, she was half a head shorter than Laura.

"Uh, no?" Laura tried.

"I think you are," the girl said sizing her up, "come with me." She turned around and jumped out of the van, when Laura didn't follow, the ninjas started to climb in.

"Okay, okay," Laura said, climbing out of the van, "I'm coming." Looking around she saw they had stopped in front of an old dilapidated cathedral. One of the ninjas pushed her along when she stopped to look around, trying to figure out where she was. Laura followed the girl in black into the cathedral, the other ninjas close behind.

They stepped through the door and Laura found herself in the chapel, or what should have been the chapel. Instead of rows of pews, water tanks lined the aisle. Where the stage was supposed to be there was a short set of stairs leading up to a throne like chair.

The girl climbed the stairs and sat down in the throne.

 _Are you serious,_ Laura thought. The ninjas behind her grabbed her arms, stopping her in front of the throne. It was like a queen addressing her servants. The thought pissed Laura off.

"I'm sure you've got questions," the girl said from her pedestal.

Laura just stared back at her, not sure what to say, and not wanting to say anything. After a few moments of silence, the girl sighed.

"Well," she said, "let's start with this. My name is Karai and I am currently in charge of the Foot Clan here in New York City."

That got her attention. _The Foot Clan?_ Laura thought. _They actually exist. Not only that, but it seems I've pissed them off by only asking a few questions. But the only place I've asked about it was at the dojo . . . Is the Foot Clan connected to the Chris Bradford dojo?_ The pieces clicked into place rapidly in her mind. "What does the Foot Clan want with me?" Laura asked aloud.

"Well, that is the question," Karai stood up and sauntered down the steps, "A successful graduate student from Baltimore, involved in various projects across campus, you've even published some of your work. Why wouldn't we need someone of your talents?"

"What are you working on that would need the help of a molecular geneticist student?" Laura asked, scared to hear the answer.

Karai answered Laura's question with another question, "What do you know about the odd events that have been going on in New York this past year?"

"What do you mean? Like the alien space ships a few weeks back?"

"I mean mutants."

"Mutants like . . ." Laura started. The mutants she was used to dealing with in the lab were bacteria that could digest alanine, or absorbs UV radiation more than the usual wild type would. But what she saw next was nothing she could ever have imagined.

"So this is the new recruit," a man with a Brazilian accent entered the room. Only when Laura turned to look, it wasn't a man. It talked like a man, but it did not look like a man. At all. It was short, like four feet, with glistening pink/purple skin. Small beady eyes looked out from the sides of his head. Orange goop was stuck to his head and back, connecting to a pair of metal legs. Between the legs hung a slender fish tail.

Laura started at the fish man, her eye brows scrunched up in confusion. His metalic legs moaned as he moved and clanked as he stepped. He drew closer and Laura saw that this was no costume. This was a mutant. Surprisingly, only one though came into her head, "What kind of fish is that supposed to be?"

Karai laughed at the question as the fish man growled, not impressed at her humor. "This is Xever," Karai introduced him, "he is one of the mutants I mentioned."

"Oh, you meant like big mutants," Laura said, "I don't know if I can help you with big . . . like sci-fi mutants. I'm more inclined to working with smaller stuff, like bacteria. Don't suppose you have any of those around . . ."

"There are other mutants like Xever in the city," Karai continued.

"More fishies?" Laura tried, really nervous now. She didn't like where this was all going.

"No. The mutagen, as we've seen, is very unstable and unpredictable. Your job here is to assist in fixing that."

"Assist? There are other people here?"

Xever the fish man chuckled to himself, "Let's just say that Stockman isn't your ideal man for the job."

 _Stockman?_ Laura thought, but pushed that thought aside. "Tell me," Laura addressed Karai, "what makes you think I'll help you? You just kidnapped me, and from what I've heard, the Foot Clan isn't exactly looking out for the greater good of the people."

"Well, I do have an army of robot ninjas," she snapped her fingers and several ninjas appeared from the shadows to emphasize her point.

"Wait, robots? Robot-sure. Robots. Why not? As if this wasn't weird enough," Laura exclaimed, overwhelmed.

"But instead of threatening you," Karai continued walking up to Laura, "I thought I'd make you an offer."

Laura watched her carefully as Karai started pacing around her, "Offer?"

"You're searching for someone," it was a statement, not a question, "your brother right." Laura felt a pang in her gut, Karai watched Laura's expression sharpen. "I'll help you find your brother, if you help us."

 _That's right,_ Laura thought it through, _If Tim joined the Foot Clan through the dojo, they would know what happened to him. If they keep a record of all their recruits, I just need access to a computer—_

Karai stopped in front of her, looking up at the taller, older girl. Nervously, Laura swallowed the lump in her throat, "What sort of project?"

Karai smiled, "Follow me."


	7. Chapter 7-Another Missing Brother

Chapter 7: Another Missing Brother

"Leo," Mikey whined, "they're not picking up."

Leo was worried. With so many Foot Bots running around, they were bound to run into the others. Leo and Mikey had made their way to the rendezvous point they had chosen before splitting up. It was on the roof of the tallest building a few blocks away from the Whitten apartment, giving them a good view of the surrounding landscape.

After they lost the Foot Bots and Dog Pound, the blue and orange ninjas tried to catch up with the van carrying Laura Whitten. It was soon obvious they weren't going to find it. They wound up at the rendezvous point when neither Raph nor Donnie answered their T-phones. They had only been waiting a couple of minutes, but Leo couldn't stand not knowing where his team was, he had a bad feeling about tonight.

"Let's look for them, they can't be far," Leo jumped down to an adjacent building but stopped short when Mikey spotted something on street level.

"Leo," he called pointing, "it's the van!"

Whipping around to where Mikey was pointing he saw the same kind of black van they saw earlier that night with four Foot Bot escorts on motorcycles, two in front and two in back.

"Let's move," Leo said, "We're not letting them get away this time."

"Let's kick some bot and save the girl!" Mikey exclaimed, running after the line of vehicles, "Booyakasha!"

They jumped from one of the lower roofs onto the top of the van. Leo dug his katanas into the roof to help stay on. Mikey swung around to the driver side and smashed the window in. He hung on as the van swerved, trying to shake him off, but Mikey's kusarigama blade sank into the driver's robotic head. The van spun to a halt as the bot powered down. One of the motorcycles slammed into the back of the van, unable to stop in time. The bike exploded, the bot didn't make it. That left three.

Leo flipped down off the roof, burying his blades into the other bot behind the van before it would extract a weapon from its metallic matrix. _Two more to go,_ Leo thought. He ran around front to see Mikey dispatch the last of the bots.

"OOOO WAH CHA CHA," Mikey sang as his nunchaku knocked the head off the last bot. He smiled up at Leo spinning his chucks.

"Come on," Leo beckoned, "let's get the girl."

They rounded to the back of the van again. Mikey rushed over and threw open the doors. "Mikey, wait—" Leo tried to stop him. They couldn't just let a human see them out in the open like that, even if she was somehow involved with the Foot.

"Woah!" Mikey screamed as he ducked out of the way, a throwing star nearly connecting with his head. Three more Foot Bots jumped out of the van, sporting four arms, each with different weapons.

"Mikey!" Leo scolded his brother as he deflected a sickle off his katana.

"Whoops," Mikey chuckled nervously, taking out one of the bots and turning to the next.

Leo swung his swords his a series of arcs and jabs until his blades connected with steel and his opponent fell to the ground. Leo checked on Mikey, who was riding around on the last bots shoulders, shouting incomprehensible gibberish while smacking its head with his nunchucks.

Leo rolled his eyes as the bot finally deactivated and slumped to the ground. "What?" Mikey asked innocently.

"Let's just get the girl," Leo said, climbing into the van.

"Um, Leo," Mikey said, peeking inside, "I don't think that's the girl." Peering into the back of the van, the figure Leo saw made his blood run cold.

"Donnie!" Leo rushed forward. Donnie was lying on the floor unconscious, hands tied behind his back. Leo cut the bonds and sat him up against the van's wall, "Donnie . . . Donnie wake up."

"What happened, bro," Mikey whispered. His brother was covered in battle wounds, blood ran down the side of his face where the blow that knocked him out landed. A thought occurred to Mikey, "Where's Raph?"

Leo stopped shaking Donnie, his thoughts moving to his other lost brother.

"You think he got captured too?" Mikey whimpered.

"I don't know," Leo answered quietly, "let's get Donnie out of here, before more bots show up. There's certainly enough out tonight."

Donnie stirred as Leo picked him up. Mikey acted as look out as Leo jumped out of the van and they dashed to the safety of the shadows in a nearby alley. They set him down against a dumpster as he started to wake up.

"Donnie?" Leo pressed closer, "Donnie . . . Donnie, can you hear me? Wake up, come on. . . There you go."

"Leo?" Donnie groaned, as his eyes struggled to focus, "What happened?"

"Dude, you totally got captured by a bunch of Foot Bots," Mikey said.

"We caught sight of the van you were in surrounded by bots on bikes," Leo explained, "We took them out and found you in the back."

Donnie shifted his position against the dumpster, groaned in pain and reached up to grasp his pounding head. He smudged the almost dried blood from his face, "That one hit me pretty good."

"What do you remember?" Leo asked, "Do you know what happened to Raph?"

"Raph?" Donnie looked around, realizing one of his brothers was missing. "I-I don't know. We were ambushed by a bunch of Foot Bots, we tried to get away but they surrounded us in a parking lot. We managed to hold them off, but the Dog Pound showed up."

"Dog Pound? Man that guy gets around," Mikey said. Donnie looked to Leo for an explanation.

"We ran into him earlier. He must have tipped off the other soldiers to keep an eye out," Leo explained.

"They found us alright," Donnie said, inspecting some of his wounds. Some scratched, a long gash on his left arm, and possibly bruised rib, "Anyway, once Dog Pound showed up, Raph rushed straight for him, leaving me with all the bots. My staff broke and they overpowered me. Last I remember, I was on the ground and Dog Pound was standing between me and Raph, and man, did Raph look pissed. Then one of them hit me and I blacked out."

"How bad is it?" Leo asked, as Donnie winced again, holding his arm.

"I'll live," he replied.

"Can you stand?"

"I think so," Donnie started to haul himself to his feet. With Mikey's help, he managed to stand, holding his brother for support.

"Good. Where was the parking lot?" Leo asked, anxious to find his other brother.

"Down on Fourth and Weson. Look for the scrap metal," Donnie said with a small smile.

"Alright. Mikey, you find a hiding spot and stay with Donnie while I check it out."

Mikey nodded as Leo ran off down the street. "Alright D, let's play hide-n-seek."

It didn't take long for Leo to find the parking lot. It was a ways away from the rendezvous point but he spotted the first remnants of the fight a few blocks away: three or so Foot Bots lay in sparking in a side alley. From there, he simply followed the carnage his brothers left as they had tried to lose their pursuers.

Leo was amazed by the sheer number of bots on the streets tonight. His amazement only grew when he set eyes on the final battlefield. Piles of now scrap metal lay all over. In one spot, the pile was knee deep and Leo could clearly picture Raph fighting through the mess, trying to reach Donnie.

Leo kicked some bots aside, looking for a clue as to where Raph had gone . . . or been taken. Leo held onto the hope that Raph would have been smart enough to escape instead of blindly fighting, but this is Raph we're talking about. Leo knew the rage that would have built up inside Raph upon having his brother taken away, right in front of him. Leo's gut dropped when he pushed one bot over and found one of Raph's sais impaled in its chest.

Leo dislodged the sai, clenching it in his hand,"Raph . . ."

 _How could this happen?_ Leo couldn't stop the thoughts from cascading through his mind. _This shouldn't have happened. I couldn't protect my team – my brothers! I've failed them. Donnie's hurt, Raph is missing . . . No! Snap out of it Leo. You're the leader, so fix it. I'll bring everyone together again. I'll bring my brother home._

The clattering of metal snapped him out of his reverie. The metallic clash setting him on edge for another bot attack, he instinctively drew one of his blades, ready to fight. He relaxed when he saw a cat skitting away from an overturned garbage can. Looking around, Leo realized how exposed he was in the middle of the empty parking lot. It was time to disappear.

Leo scaled the fire escape of a nearby building and scanned the surrounding area from the shadow of an air vent on the roof. What to do now? Look for Raph? From the looks of parking lot, the fight couldn't have ended well. There were simply too many bots on the street tonight. But what if Raph did manage to escape, and is waiting it out in a safe hiding place? Better to be safe.

Flying over the roof tops, sticking to the shadows, Leo searched the surrounding perimeter. He kept expanding his search field until he felt his T-Phone buzzing in his belt.

"Mikey," Leo answered.

"Any luck bro?"

"I found one of his sais," Leo took it out and held it in his hand, "but no sign of Raph. How's Donnie holding up?"

"Eh, he's been beaten worse," Mikey was uncharacteristically melancholy, "What do we do now Leo?"

Leo thought about the situation. Sure, finding Raph was a priority, but Raph was a tough turtle and Leo had his other brothers to worry about too. Well, when in doubt, "Let's get back to the lair. We need to tell Splinter what happened."


	8. Chapter 8-Get to Work

Chapter 8: Get to Work

"This is where you will work," Karai opened the door to the underground laboratory. Despite being quite far underground, the ceiling was high. It was relatively dark room, with an eerie green glow dominating the space.

Dominating in the middle of the room was the source of the green glow, a giant glass vat of a glowing, green, viscous solution with . . . were those sparkles floating in there? And why was there no lid? It was just an open vat of a glowing green, and possibly radioactive elixir.

 _Elixer, I like that word. E-lix-er . . ._ Laura's mind becomes side tracked easily. Rolling the word around in her head, her train of thought started to wander.

She was thinking about the purpose of the sparkles in the elixir when a movement from behind the vat caught her attention. A man was trying to open one of many crates that surrounded the work space. He was wearing this really lame pink sweater, sort of like the kind that grandma gets you for Christmas but grandma is apparently senile and thinks you're a girl. He was also wearing a fluffy hat too, until he got closer and she saw it was his hair not a hat. He was also sporting some crazy neckwear too, a metal collar type thing with tubes full of the sparkly elixir.

 _Wait . . . Dorky sweater . . . giant afro . . . Why does that seem so familiar?_ Sparkles forgotten, she reached back a few years in her memory, searching for a link.

The man noticed the group of newcomers and stopped his struggles. His eyes stopped on the new girl, widening in recognition.

"This is your new assistant," Karai stepped forward, "She's agreed to help on this project."

"L-laura? Laura Whitten? Is that you?" the man asked, stepping forward.

"Oh! Oh, I know you," Laura remembered the face, "It's Bessy! How long's it been? I knew I recognized that lame sweater, but your hair's only gotten bigger."

"Bessy?" Karai smiled, turning to the man who grimaced.

"It's Baxter!" He insisted irritably, "Baxter Stockman!"

"I haven't seen you since grade twelve graduation. You were such a nerd in high school." Laura laughed at the memory of a younger Bessy in a fight with the library's printer.

"Really? You two were classmates?" Karai asked, "Small world."

"This guy was the biggest geek in our class. But he was good with computers, a real wiz kid."

"Enough!" Stockman said, stomping his foot, "Just get on with it."

Karai sobered and turned back to Laura, "Like I said, you help Stockman here with our project and we'll help you find your brother."

"And what exactly might this project be?" Laura inquired looking around the laboratory again, "I'm guessing it has to do with the big open vat of sparkly elixir? I mean really, where's the lid? Why is it not sealed? Any random thing can fall into it and contaminate the whole solution."

"It's not the ooze you would be worried about if something fell in," Karai smiled menacingly, walking toward the giant cylinder of the elixir. "This is the mutagen that turned Xever and others into mutants they are today."

Laura' eyes wandered back to the purple fish man in robotic legs who had accompanied them to the underground lab. Again, possibilities ran through her mind as to how a substance could possibly cause such a drastic change in anything. This was not gonna be as simple as the point mutations or homologous recombination's she was used to. Her gaze drifted back to the elixir, it certainly seemed other worldly, right out of a bad sci-fi movie.

"Where did this . . . mutagen, come from? How did you make it, and how does it work?" Laura asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer, but at the same time, she couldn't supress her curiosity.

Karai smiled at the question, "We didn't make it. It was given to us as a gift from our new friends, the Kraang."

She said 'Kraang' like it should strike fear into ones heart, cause babies to cry and send large dogs running with their tails between their legs. But it meant nothing to Laura.

"The who now?" She asked imassively.

"The Kraang," Karai started, a little disappointed in Laura's reaction, "are an alien race from another dimension. They're annoying little brain things that want to mutate our world into one similar to theirs."

"Oh," Laura said, feeling a little light headed now, "that's nice. And you're all friends? That-that's good . . . just peachy." She took a few breaths, letting this all process. _The hell have I gotten myself into? Why did I not call the po-po in the van? Stubborn brain, you should listen to rational brain every once and awhile._

"So," Laura tried again, "What are you wanting me to do with this stuff that is supposed to mutate out entire planet?"

"The mutagen in highly unstable and unpredictable. We want you to help Stockman to modify into something we can use."

"Yeah, you said that much already back in the chapel turned throne room. But what are you using it for? What possible purpose could you have for something that turns people into something out of an anime?"

"Imagine," Karai explained, looking off into the distance, "an army of monsters walking down the street. People would run in fear, no one would oppose us."

"If you're going for the scare tactics, just stick Bessy in the front. That sweater is plenty scary. That and the glowing necklace. What's up with that?"

"It's insurance," Karai's smile was gone and in its place was a scowl that showed hatred, "If you behave, you can avoid his fate. Stockman will fill you in on the details." She turned to leave.

"Woah, woah! Hold on there, kid," Laura called out, "I never agreed to help you make an army."

"You don't have a choice," Karai sent a hand signal to her robot ninjas. They stood on guard as she left, the automatic doors sealing shut as she left.

"Well fuck," Laura huffed. Laura turned around, Bessy was busy trying to open the crate again. Eyeing the robot guards, Laura sighed and walked over to the struggling nerd.

"Been awhile Bessy," she said, grabbing a crow bar from a nearby box and easily opening the crate. Stockman looked at her dejectedly before starting to rummage around in the crate, "How's life? Never knew you were into the whole evil, take over the world type of thing, but hey, whatever works for you. Anyways, care to fill me in on a few missing details?"

Baxter sighed and looked up at her irritably, "Why should I?" He crossed his arms and looked away.

"Don't snub me. Like it or not, and I definitely don't, but it seems that we're stuck together. Now, unless you have anything you want to get off your chest, then try growing a pair and fill me in on what the hell is going on?"

"You heard what's going on," he muttered.

"Yeah," Laura huffed with incredulity, "we got evil ninja robots, aliens from another dimension, giant mutant fish monsters, and a vat of sparkly lowing elixir that _still_ doesn't have a lid. I mean really, that can't end well, under any circumstances."

"Hmm, never thought about a lid . . ."

"Focus Bessy."

"Stop that! Stop calling me Bessy! My name is Baxter! Baxter Stockman!"

"Fine, Baxter. What the hell is going on? Why does the Foot Clan need a mutant army? For that matter, why is the Foot Clan being run by some kid?"

"That's Karai. She's the Shredder's daughter."

"Oh, there's a shredder now too? Do I go to him with my paper recyclables?"

"It would be in your best interest not to mock the boss. He's the scariest guy around."

"Well, I don't see him around."

"He's back in Japan. I think he's recruiting new soldiers."

"Because an army of robot ninjas and mutant monsters isn't enough? Which brings me back to the question, why does he need an army?"

"To fight his enemies, Hamato Yoshi and the Turtles."

"Now we got turtles and Mario's dinosaur?"

"He's a rat actually. Apparently he got mutated along with the turtles. He raised the turtles as his sons and taught them ninjitsu."

"Oh okay, so a ninja dinosaur is teaching turtles ninjitsu, got it. So how many of them are there that they would need a mutant army?"

"Umm . . . Well . . . There-there's the four turtles, and the rat. Oh, and I think there're a human helping them."

"So five, maybe six guys fighting off an army of robot ninjas? Alright, this side is pathetic. What am I even doing here? What are you doing here? Didn't go to school for robotics or something? Why are you involved in an evil genetics lab?"

"I have my grudges too."

"Really? You? What, did you make some half assed robot that got broken or something?"

Baxter glared at Laura, she didn't know how right she was. He shoved some documents into her arms, "This is what I've got so far. Like you pointed out, I'm not a geneticist. So do your job, and help me figure this out."

Baxter went back to his crate, thus ending the conversation. Sighing, Laura found a rolling computer chair and made herself comfortable, propping her feet onto a nearby desk. She flipped through the files Baxter had given her. They were filled with utter nonsense. All he was doing was mixing different animal parts with the elixir and watching what was happening. There was no scientific process. Just random crap vortexted into a tube and dumped on some poor sap.

There were also ideas for future experiments. They were as bad as his past ones. Ducks and pigs were among his bright ideas. I mean, if you're going to make a mutant army, you could at least mix in something scary, like a bear or a lion. Hell, if you broke into a museum you could probably get some dinosaur DNA to use . . . actually, no. That probable wouldn't be good. For one, it's unlikely that there would be any DNA that wasn't degraded by nucleases and secondly, Jurassic Park scared the hell out of me. But I mean, it's better than mutant ducks and pigs.

For the first experiment conducted, some stupid idiot volunteered to become a mutant. The result was a blob of jelly and guts that rampaged around the abandoned warehouse where they conducted the experiment.

 _Who conducts experiments in a dirty warehouse. There's infinite contamination possibilities._

They ended up blowing up the whole place. The new mutant blob went on a rampage, then the turtles that Bessy mentioned had shown up. Apparently the mutant didn't survive the explosion. Not much was left. Laura skimmed through the report, not registering any details

She threw the documents on the desk before she even made it half way through. There was no real method to his experiments, but the results were scary as hell. She looked up at the open vat again. _There really should be a lid on that thing._

She glanced around the lab again, Baxter was busy trying to open another crate, the contents of the previous laying on the work bench nearby. Seems like it was filled with what looked like medical supplies, needles, IV tubes, even those wooden Popsicle sticks the doctors stick in the kids mouths. The only thing missing was flower and race car Band Aids.

Laura noticed a computer nearby and rolled her chair over to it. The wheels made a loud clattering noise over the uneven ground. On the desk, she found a wooden ruler lined with red plastic which she unconsciously grabbed and started fiddling with. Laura pressed the space bar to wake the computer up. A generic desktop filled the screen and Laura started poking, tapping the ruler on her cheek. She tried to find more about Baxter's experiments, but quickly gave up when she found pictures of test subjects even more graphic than Mr. Guts.

She was about to boot up a game of Solitaire when a file name caught her attention.

- **Turtles**

She clicked it open, tapping the ruler against her chin. The mysterious enemies strong enough to take on robot ninjas hadn't escaped her curiosity. Four subfolders popped up with one document acting as an overview. She clicked on this file and various pictures popped up. She clicked through them and stopped at one showing all four turtles standing side by side. They were different in their appearance from each other as any humans would be. They also differed in the colour of their ninja masks, blue, purple, red and orange. Though their appearances were different, they all had the same smile on their faces. They had just defeated another enemy and were ready to celebrate. She clicked to the next image where they were all giving each other high fives . . . or whatever you call it, since they didn't quite have five fingers.

She read through the write up associated with the file. It contained records of all their previous clashes with the Foot Clan, some were successful while others were not. Even though one side only had four warriors, this was indeed a war between ninja clans.

It was all so overwhelming, Laura's head was spinning. Mutants, ninjas, wars . . . what did she get herself into? And where does Tim fit into all of this.

 _Tim!_

Laura had completely forgotten about her brother, which is understandable, what with all that's been uncovered in one night.

She held her ruler in her mouth as she turned her attention back to the computer and started typing search commands when the doors to the lab burst open. She spun around, closing her search. She didn't want anyone knowing what she was doing. Better for them to think she's all gung ho about helping them.

What came through the door was just as surprising as seen the Xever fish guy, because this guy was a mutant too. But he was bigger, like a lot bigger. Like, twice my size bigger. The giant, looming canine form of Chris Bradford barged through dragging something behind him. Laura felt the ruler fall from her mouth as her jaw dropped slightly. She gripped it tightly in her hand.

"Stinkman," the dog man growled in a low voice, "get the cage." Laura backed away as the dog mutant made its way further into the lab. Bradford noticed her and smiled at her, "Welcome to the Foot Clan, girl."

Baxter dragged a few boxes away from a metal prison cage hidden in the back of the lab and wheeled it over. Bradford opened the door and literally threw what he was dragging into the cage which rocked back from the force. Laura got her first glimpse of the Foot's newest prisoner and it made her blood run cold.

Lying in the cage unconscious was the mutant turtle wearing the red mask. Raphael.


	9. Chapter 9-Making Friends

Chapter 9: Making Friends

Leo sat with Master Splinter in the dojo. After the three brothers returned to the lair, they treated Donnie's wounds, which weren't that bad. Like Mikey said before, he's been beaten worse before. Mikey was watching Donnie now, making sure he stayed in bed for the night instead of trying to sneak back into his lab.

Donnie felt as guilty about what happened to Raph as Leo did. He couldn't hold his own in the fight, he had been captured first, and by all rights, it should be Donnie and not Raph who was now missing. He was determined to find his brother. If Raph's T-Phone was still on, he could easily activate the tracker he'd installed inside, or at least track its last recorded locations.

Thoughts of finding his brother filled Donnie's head as he drifted to sleep. It had been a long night for all of them. Mikey checked one last time on Donnie. Just to make sure he wasn't fake sleeping, Mikey started throwing jelly beans at him from the doorway. When Mikey scored one in Donnie's mouth, and he still didn't move, Mikey concluded that Donnie was asleep.

Leo explained what had happened that night to Splinter: finding Laura Whitten, splitting up, Foot Bot attacks, Dog Pound, finding Donnie, not finding Raph. Leo also relayed what Donnie had figured out from searching Laura Whitten's apartment.

"Apparently her brother was a member at Chris Bradford's dojo. That was the last place he was supposed to be before he disappeared," Leo said.

"So it is possible that Laura Whitten's brother is a member of the Foot Clan," Splinter concluded, "and it is possible that she is our enemy as well."

"But why would the Foot kidnap her if she was their ally?"

"Very true," Splinter thought on the matter, "Whether this Laura Whitten girl turns out to be a friend or foe remains to be seen. We do not know enough about the situation to come to a conclusion on the matter."

"Hai, sensei," Leo replied. This whole situation frustrated him. The element of not knowing was eating away at him. It must have shown on his face.

"Fear not, my son," Splinter placed a hand on his shoulder, "for now, focus on finding Raphael. That should be your first priority. But now, it is time for rest. Donatello has to recover, and so should you and Michelangelo."

"Hai sensei," Leo said, more firmly this time.

 **O**

"Awwwe."

Laura Whitten spun in her chair towards the voice. The turtle was waking up. He had been transferred from the cage onto a metal table with shackles binding his wrists and ankles.

"What the—" He started pulling on the bindings, "Oh, come on. Ow . . ." He winced.

 _Must be sore from the beating last night,_ Laura thought. When she had been left alone with the mutant, she saw he was covered in bruises and battle wounds. She cleaned him up as best she could, but she was no doctor. Well, not the medical kind anyway.

The turtle's name was Raphael. An odd name, but apparently all of the turtles were named after old dead Italian guys or something. History was never Laura's thing. Raphael, from what she read on his file, was the most aggressive of the turtles. His weapon of choice was a pair of sais, which just looked like mini tridents.

Laura had examined the gear Raphael had been wearing when they brought him in. The file said that he had two sais, but only one of them was here. The other must have been lost in the fight. She spun the weapon around between her hands, examining it. But she didn't know very much about fighting, let alone ninja weapons, so she put it back.

Among his other possessions was an array of throwing stars and knives, a cute cell phone in the shape of a turtle shell, and . . . eggs with fancy wrappers? Laura picked one up. It was lighter than an egg should be. Shaking it gently, she felt some sort of powder move around inside. Powder? Was it poison, or maybe some sort of explosive?

The turtle had been sleeping for most of the day.

"Awake, are we" Baxter said from across the room.

"Dexter Spakman," the turtle spat.

"It's Baxter Stockman!" He yelled angrily, "I mean really, how hard it is to remember my name!"

Laura chuckled to herself. _Poor Bessie. No one gets his name right. Must be a recurring joke or something._

"It's not that hard, I just don't care," the turtle retorted pulling at his bindings again.

"Struggle all you like, turtle," Baxter said approaching the table, "you won't be able to escape."

w _hat is this, some crappy villain speech?_ Laura thought.

"What is this, some crappy superhero cartoon and you're the villain?" the turtle asked, "I mean really, this is almost as bad as having to listen to Leo."

 _I'm starting to like this guy_.

"Well, don't worry," Baxter said pulling a needle from a nearby tray, "the only thing you'll have to listen to, is the sound of your own screams."

"Woah! Woah!" Laura said, jumping up from her computer chair and grabbing the syringe, "The hell do you think you're doing? What's in there? Is that the mutagen? Are you stupid?" She slapped him on the head with her ruler, but his afro absorbed most of the force.

"Aren't you that Whitten girl?" the turtle asked. Laura looked back at him, meeting his electric green eyes.

"Why does everyone know who I am?" Laura threw her arms up. It was kind of unnerving. She usually liked to try and keep a low profile. _But I guess I'm doing a pretty lousy job at that_ , she thought.

"Why do you get her name right?" Baxter yelled.

"Oh, shut up Bessy," Laura rolled her eyes. She emptied the syringe into a mutagen waste container, making sure to screw the lid on tight.

"Bessy?" the turtle asked.

"Stop calling me that!" Baxter pointer his finger at Laura menacingly. She slapped it away with her ever present ruler.

"Then stop trying to inject our only specimen with whatever the hell you like! This isn't gonna work if you destroy what we're trying to test before we even do anything," Laura snapped at him, "Just go play with your mousey robots."

"Whoa whoa there sister," the turtle said, "Who're you calling a specimen? And why are you working for these goons anyways? Didn't they just kidnap you?"

Laura frowned as she thought on his words. She turned to him, her face serious, and met his gaze, "I'm not interested in your war," she said carefully, "I'm just trying to bring my brother home."

Raphael saw a mixture of emotions in the Whitten girl's face. Sorrow for losing her brother, anger and frustration at not being able to do anything, and a cold, hard determination to succeed where others had failed before her. Raph knew these emotions, he had felt them himself before, whenever one of his brothers had been in trouble. And it was no doubt how his brothers were feeling now about him.

Raph heard a set of doors creak open, but couldn't see who had come in from where he was positioned. The Whitten girl rolled her eyes and sat down in a rolling chair in front of a computer and started typing.

"Nice to see you again Raphael," the familiar voice of his least favorite kunoichi filled the room.

"Karai," he greeted her with a sneer, "the evil princess herself makes an appearance."

Karai replied with a smirk, standing over him, "How do you like your accommodations? Hope everything is to your liking?"

"You know what would really hit the spot," Raph asked, "My sai in your face!"

"Well, you're just gonna have to settle for being our new scientists guinea pig for now," Karai glanced over toward the Whitten girl, who pretended to ignore their conversation. She just kept typing away.

"So she's your new Spankboy? Is that what you kidnapped her for?"

"Oh, she's not a prisoner," Karai said. Laura clenched her hands. "I simply made her an offer, and she accepted."

"Is that so?" And Raph was kind of starting to like her a bit too. He could relate to her wanting to help her family, but he couldn't count on her if she's agreed to work for the bad guys. Turns out you just can't trust anyone these days. Sure she may have stopped Stockman from using whatever was in that syringe . . . but like she said, she had "tests" to run. She was probably more dangerous than Stockman in the lab, she actually knew what she was doing.

Laura had stopped typing, and was fiddling with her ruler again. At the pause in conversation, she pushed back her chair and starting pulling out chemical reagents from a cupboard.

"Miss Whitten here is going to perfect the mutagen, and you're going to help her," Karai said.

"Don't suppose my opinion matters much."

"No, it doesn't." At that, Karai turned to leave.

"Wait," Raph called, "what did you do with Donnie?" Looking around, Raph had realized that his brother was absent.

"Donatello?" Karai stopped and gave Raphael one last evil smile, "Oh, he's spending some quality time with the Kraang. We're not the only ones interested in perfecting the mutagen."

Raph felt hot anger bubble through his body, "You witch!" He pulled against his restraints, yelling profanities. Karai laughed and left, the doors sealing shut behind her.

Laura watched the turtle struggle. She knew the turtles had been raised as brothers, and watching Raphael reminded her of what she had been feeling these last few months. Angry, useless, frustrated.

Raph noticed the Whitten girl watching him, "And what's your problem?" He yelled snapping her out of her daze. This irritated her, family problems aside she had a cover to keep. She frowned at him then pulled something out of a plastic baggie. She walked up to the table and held up a cotton swab.

"Open up, Red," she held the swab up to his mouth. He clenched his teeth shut, glaring daggers at her. "Would you rather me use a blood sample instead?"

Raphael growled, narrowing his eyes in defiance. He wasn't afraid of pain.

"Fine," Laura said, turning away. She rounded back on him and slapped his fore head with her wooden ruler.

"Ow," Raph yelped, more out of surprise than pain. Laura swiped the cotton swab in his open mouth and tried to get a good sample. He bit down on the stick.

"Seriously?" Laura tried to wiggle the swab out from between his teeth, "What are you, two years old?" Raph snapped off the end of the swab with his teeth. Laura held up the splintered end of the wooden stick. She looked at it, then back at the turtle strapped to the table.

She sighed and tossed the broken stick into the garbage. Then she leaned against a work bench, crossed her arms, watching him. Raph met her gaze, rolling the end of the cotton swab in his mouth. The splintered end of the swab jabbed into the side of his cheek, and he spat to out.

Laura lunged forward and caught the end of the swab in a gloved hand. "Thank you," she sang as she dropped the end into a small Eppendorf tube and poured in the solution she had previously mixed, "That wasn't so hard now was it?" Raph just glared at her and started working at his restraints again.

She centrifuged the tube and set it to incubate. She was performing a simple Chelex DNA extraction.

She sat at her computer again, letting the red turtle simmer, and opened a new search window. She accessed the old records of soldiers that the Foot had recruited from the Chris Bradford dojos. There had to be some record about what happened to Tim.

 _If they think I'm actually gonna help them create a mutant army out of some trippy elixir, they are sorely mistaken._

In Laura's experience, people will always tend to think less of you. She now used that to her advantage. While that Karai brat thought she was cooperating, she would be conducting her own search, like she had been from the beginning. The only difference is that now, she has access to the Foot's records.

"You know that Karai is lying," Raph pointed out, after a few minutes of silence.

Laura glanced at the turtle, "No shit." She went back to the records, scrolling through a list of old applicants.

"Then why would you agree to help? They're only gonna stab you in the back."

"Not if I'm the one with the knife," Laura clicked on a link that brought her to a list of recruits from when Tim was supposed to have first joined. "I agreed to help so I could find my brother."

" _Like I said,_ they're not going to help you."

"I don't need their help, just their records."

"Records?" Raph recalled that her brother had joined the Bradford dojo and realized that it's possible that he ended up joining the Foot Clan, they had been desperate for soldiers before the Kraang started supplying their robots.

"What are you trying to do anyway?" Laura spun in her chair to face him, "Do you think you can convince me that what I'm doing is wrong? That I'll make the 'right' choice, and help you escape? Do you think I'm on your side?"

"I just thought that someone as smart as you would be able to see past the whole mad scientist act."

"There's a difference between being smart and being wise," Laura said, spinning back to her computer, "And I've always embraced the mad scientist in me."

Red's little speech wasn't needed. Laura knew what she needed to do, but she wasn't quite ready to do it yet. But still, he did just learn that his brother is a captive of . . . what were they, the Kraang? Which ones were they? They mutants? No those were the turtles . . . among others. That's right, the Kraang were the aliens. There's too much going on here.

Laura reluctantly pushed aside her search for Tim, and pulled up the files on the turtles. She clicked on the file that was most recently added, detailing last night's activities.

"Last night, the turtles Donatello and Raphael were successfully captured after a battle located at the parking lot on Fourth and Weson," Laura read aloud for Raphael to hear. "The turtle Raphael was transported to Baxter Stockman's lab while Donatello was to be delivered to the Kraang. The transport carrying Donatello was intercepted by the remaining turtles, Leonardo and Michelangelo. The Foot Bots assigned to the transport were destroyed and the captive was lost."

"What's that?" Raph asked.

"The report filed from last night," Laura said, "Like you said, that Karai brat's a liar. Looks like your brothers are all doing alright."

Laura watched the relief flood through the Red's face and smiled sadly to herself. Thoughts of Tim drifted from her memories as she tapped her wooden ruler against the table.

A loud crash brought her back to the present. She leaned back in her chair to look around the giant vat of mutagen. She saw Baxter buried under a pile of his stupid MOUSER robots. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the computer.


	10. Chapter 10-What's Lost and Found

_Laura chases off Fish Face with nothing more than a wooden ruler and a lot of attitude, gaining Raph's respect. She later finds a document telling her what happened to Tim. Thinking that her brother died in an explosion, Laura loses herself to grief and injects Raph with a sedative for reasons unknown. Meanwhile, Donnie has troubles finding where Raph was taken. The turtles try to figure it out when Metalhead picks up a signal from Raph's T-Phone, which tracks back to a Foot Base._

Chapter 10: What's Lost and Found

Later that day, Laura was alone in the lab. Bessy had been called upon for his technical help elsewhere. Laura found the document that contained her brother's recruitment information. It gave her the date he started, his rank, his abilities (that section was relatively short), and other random crap that didn't really help her. She grew frustrated with her lack of results. It didn't tell her where he was now. It was just what they collected when he joined the Chris Bradford dojo.

Her mood didn't improve when the Fish Guy decided to show up. His metallic legs clanked on the floor as he walked over to the turtle.

Laura only partially paid attention to their conversation. It consisted mostly of smack talk and making fun of each other. Then they started talking about cooking, or maybe it was how they were going to cook each other? She heard something about soup and sushi . . .

Then the giant dog guy showed up, who apparently was Chris Bradford.

"How many visitors are you going to get, Red?" Laura mumbled to herself, watching the newcomer. She didn't know his name, so she had taken to calling him Spot.

Red made a particularly nasty comment to Xever, who he called Fish Face, which involved Xever's mother and a moldy pickle.

Spot howled in laughter as Xever drew his knife. It wasn't an impressive knife either, just any pocket knife you could pick up in a corner store or something.

"You think you are in a position to be making jokes, eh?" Fish Face twirled his knife around his hand, "Well, we'll see who is laughing."

Raph hardened his face as he watched the knife descend. Laura jumped into action, her ruler zipping through the air. Raph flinched when he heard the familiar slap of wood on flesh and Xever knife clattered to the floor.

"You dare to strike me?" Xever said menacingly, rubbing his hand where Laura Whitten's ruler made contact.

"You dare interfere with my experiments?" Laura replied, mimicking his accent. "I mean really, how rude is that? I'm just trying to do my job here, and all of you yahoo's keep trying to maim my only specimen."

"Know your place girl," Xever stepped forward menacingly, his robotic foot clanking on the ground.

"Oh, I know my place," she stepped between Xever and Red, "It's right here," this time she slapped his fore head, "making sure you don't screw everything up."

"Listen here—" Xever tried again.

"No, you listen," she slapped him again and he took a step back, "if you're gonna mess with my process, then you gonna have to go."

"Stop that," Xever yelled as she slapped him again. He tried to grab the ruler, but she slapped his hand away. Spot howled in laughter as Laura Whitten literally chased Fish Face out of the lab.

"What a girl," Spot laughed. 

"You wanna try your luck, Spot?" Laura taunted, a scary expression on her face and a deadly ruler in her grasp.

Spot stopped laughing, "Don't think I can be scared off by office supplied," he growled.

"Don't be so sure," Laura exchanged her ruler for a nearby stapler, "I can be quite creative." Her face held a look of sadistic brutality. A small smile tugged at her lips, as if she was imagining all sorts of pain she could inflict with a stapler.

Spot's ears fell a bit, pressing against his head. "Don't think you've won this," he called as he left the room. Laura could have sworn that his tail was between his legs, which they were rather short despite his large size.

"Don't stop by again," Laura called after him.

"Alright, I'm both curious and a little scared," Red said once the lab doors had sealed themselves shut, "What can do with a stapler?"

"Hell if I know," Laura let out a shaky breath, dropping the stapler. She collapsed into her chair, trembling a bit. "That was terrifying."

"You know, I think I'm starting to like you."

"You're not so bad yourself, Red." She looked at the computer screen and her lack of results. She leaned back in the chair, sighing, looking up at the ceiling.

"Find anything about your brother?" Red asked.

"Nothing that really helps," Laura glanced at him. He tried to shift to a more comfortable position on the table. i _He shouldn't be here,_ /iLaura thought. i _I could let him escape, undo his bindings. But I may need his help to escape. So I can't let him go yet. I'd better hurry before he finds a way to get himself out or the other turtles decide to turn up._ /i

Her fingers flew across the keys with renewed determination. Red watched her work. The fire in her eyes was back, and he couldn't help but admire the way she had chased off Fish Face and Dog Pound with nothing more than office supplies and a whole lot of attitude. It may have been a bluff, but that just made her gutsy. He could respect that.

Raphael's mind started to wander, he thought of possible ways to escape, of Spike back home, of possible rescue by his brothers. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts engulf him. He wasn't sure how much time had passed when the Whitten girl stood up suddenly, her chair crashed to the ground.

She reached for a file that sat on the desk beside her. It was the file that Bessy had given her, the one about all the previous experiments performed with the mutagen.

i _This can't be right,_ /iLaura prayed as she turned to the first experiment that was ever performed, i _Please. Tim you can't be that stupid. /_ i She looked at the grainy photo of the blob monster raging through the warehouse, intestines and organs floating around in his aqueous protoplasm.

She had only glanced at the file previously, too disgusted by the results to delve into the case study in too much detail. She also didn't make the connection at first. She never thought he would actually use it, it had also been so long since he told her his super hero name. It was the time they were debating over catch phrases, which was also the last time she had spoken with him. She now stared at the name of the test subject.

b **Pulveriser/b**

"You idiot," she whispered. Laura felt her eyes start to water, and she blinked the forming tears away. She read through the file, cramming every sick, unmoral detail into her mind.

His mutation was the epitome of why they needed her help: the mutagen was unstable and unpredictable. They couldn't control him. They set explosive charges in the ware house, and when they saw what happened . . . they destroyed it all.

"He's dead," Laura whimpered. The first tear fell as she dropped her hands to her side. The anguish soon turned into something else. Red hot anger filled her. She crumpled the document she was still holding. Glaring at it, she ripped the crumpled pages to shreds.

She yelled as she turned her wrath on the nearby glass ware. Beakers and flasks shattered against the floor, shards of razor sharp glass flew over the floor. She held up another volumetric flask, ready to smash it into nothingness, when the grief hit her again. She sank to her knees, glass shards ripping through her jeans and slicing her legs. She sat there, silent tears mixing with the puddles of blood forming on the ground, she cradled the flask.

Raph watched silently from his vantage point. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but he heard enough to guess that Laura Whitten no longer had a reason to help the Foot. If she was going to help him, now would be the time.

"Laura?" he tried. She didn't respond.

"Laura!" he said a little more forcefully. She slowly turned her head to stare at him with wide eyes. "Look, I know this isn't easy, but there's nothing here for you anymore."

Laura picked herself up. She pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes and rubbed them hard.

"We need to get out of here," Raph continued, he wasn't sure if she was hearing him.

Laura slowly looked around the lab. Her eyes landed on the medical supplied that Baxter had pulled out of one of his crates yesterday. An idea started to grow in her mind.

"If you can—hey, are you listening," Laura walked right past him, as if she couldn't hear him. She examined a line of small bottles and picked one out. She then picked out a syringe from a box. She filled the needle with the contents of the bottle.

She held the syringe up, examining the clear liquid inside. She squeezed the plunger and watched a thin stream of the solution shoot out the top.

"Laura," Raph tried to get her attention. Raph was scared now. He didn't know what was in that needle, but it couldn't be good. For all he knew, he was watching her contemplate suicide. Great, he just freaked himself out even more. "Laura, snap out of it."

She looked toward him again, then back at the syringe. She sauntered over to the table, syringe hanging loosely by her side. She looked down at Red. She felt bad for doing this, but it was the best plan she could think of.

i _Sorry mom,_ /i she thought, another tear slipping from her eyes, i _I guess I'm going to be leaving you too._ /i

She took a deep breath, making eye contact with those brilliant green eyes. "Sorry Red," she said raising the syringe, "Good night."

"What? Good night?"

Laura Whitten plunged the syringe into Raphael's arm, emptying its contents into his blood stream.

"What are you doing!" he screamed, trying to pull away, but the damage was done. "Are you crazy?!"

"Don't worry, it's just a sedative," Laura reassured him, his eyes were already growing heavy. "I'll make sure you brothers find you. It was good knowing you, Red."

"What are . . . you go . . . going to d-do?" Raph manages, his mind losing touch with reality.

"Something really stupid."

Raphael lost consciousness for a second time in two days.

b  
 **O**

/b

Earlier that day down in the turtles' secret lair, Leo woke in the morning to find that, despite the previous night's events, Donnie was already awake and in his lab. He was typing furiously at his computer, trying to get a fix on Raph's T-Phone.

"The best I can find," Donnie explained to Leo as Metalhead handed Donnie a mug of steaming coffee, "was the location where he last made a call, which was to you."

"Can't you track where it is now?" Leo asked watching as lines of code and equations moved across the screen.

"I could, if it was giving off a signal," Donnie took a deep draft of coffee, "It's either gotta be turned off, or the battery died, or it's broken, or something. But I've got nothing."

Leo helped Donnie go through surveillance footage from last night. Donnie hacked into a number of remote servers and pulled up all the videos from cameras in the surrounding area around the parking lot. In the meantime, Metalhead kept scanning for incoming signals from Raph's T-Phone, just in case someone turned it on.

Frustrated, Donnie slammed his fist down on the table.

"Maybe we should take a break," Leo suggested. They had been at it for hours. Mikey had wandered into the lab a while earlier and had helped in going through the videos, until he got hungry and left to order a pizza.

"And do what?" Donnie asked. He was angry at himself, this was supposed to do his area of expertise. But it seems he was as useless here as on the battle field.

"I don't know Donnie," Leo shrugged, "but we can't just keep sifting through videos we don't even know will have anything useful."

"Maybe your right," Donnie said giving in. "So now what? How do we find Raph?"

"Well, let's talk it through," Leo suggested, "We know Shredder's out of town, so where would Karai likely bring him?"

"The arcade!" Mikey walked into the lab, carrying multiple boxes of pizza, a slice already hanging out of his mouth.

"This is serious Mikey," Leo said.

"Let's see," Donnie turned back to his computer and brought up a file with all the known Foot Clan bases. He plotted them on a map and printed it out. Laying it out on the table he critically eyed each position, marked with a black dot. "The fight in the parking lot was here," he marked the place where the parking lot was with a black "X", "and where did you say you found me?"

"Right here," Leo pointed to a street a dozen blocks away, "heading south." Donnie grabbed a purple marker and drew an arrow along the road heading south.

Donnie examined the map. The direction of travel didn't point to any Foot location, the closest one would be a twenty minute drive west. "Where were they taking me? There's no Foot base in this direction."

"You think they set up a new base?" Leo asked.

"Or maybe they got lost?" Mikey said, mouth full of jalapeno and shrimp pizza.

"What if . . ." Donnie though his idea through. "The Foot and the Clan are allies now, so what if . . ." Donnie added Kraang bases to the map as pink dots. The blue arrow pointed in the general direction of one of the Kraang bases.

"So they were taking Donnie to a Kraang base?" Mikey asked confused.

"It would explain why Raph wasn't in the van with me," Donnie explained, "One of us went to the Foot while the other went to the Kraang."

"So if you were heading towards the Kraang," Leo said, "then that means Raph is in a Foot base." 

"Which brings us back to the same problem as before," Donnie said gesturing to all the black dots, "which one?"

Metalhead spoke up at this point. A series of beeps sent Donnie to his feet, scrambling back to his computer.

"What is it Donnie," Leo asked, looking over his shoulder.

"It's Raph!" Donnie exclaimed, "His T-Phone just started transmitting a signal."

"Where's it coming from?"

"Give me a second," Donnie stuck his tongue out as he types in more commands. "There!" A map of the city appeared on the screen, with a flashing dot overlapping with one of the Foot bases.

"Alright, gear up," Leo said, kicking into leader mode, "We're bringing our brother home."


	11. Chapter 11-Nitroglycerin

**A/N: This is a shout out to BubblyShell22 for being the first to review! Thanks :3 I appreciate the encouragement and criticism. Make sure you all leave a review for me too. And look at this, I'm actually doing A/N's now, just in time to start wrapping thing up. Enjoy this explosive chapter. And kids, don't make nitroglycerin at home. Oh, and a note of warning, there is some blood in this one.**

Chapter 11: Nitroglycerin

The turtles scoped out the Foot base from a nearby rooftop. It was Shredder's headquarters: an old, rundown church. Their eyes were white with concentration as the moon light shone on their shells.

Leo signaled and they moved as one. They entered from the sewers, coming into one of the underground chambers. Donnie checked his T-Phone for Raph's location, it was still further down.

Leo signaled for absolute ninja stealth and the three of them made their way further into the Foot base. They ran into minimal guards, and managed to slip by most of them only slicing through Foot Bots as they deemed necessary.

"It's just up ahead," Donnie whispered, pointing towards a set of sliding doors which were of course locked. They were pretty far underground at this point. It only took a moment for Donnie to access the control panel, and the doors soon slid open.

"I can't believe we haven't set off any alarms," Mikey commented. Leo slapped him over the head, "Ouch!"

"Don't jinx it," he scolded. The three brothers cautiously stepped inside the room. The room was large and dim, with the green glow of the mutagen coming from a giant container in the middle of the room. There were a few desks with computers and science equipment, even a few wooden crates stacked up against one wall. The only detail that registered to the turtles was a metal table off to one side.

"Raph!" Mikey yelled out rushing forward, "What did they do?" Raph was strapped to the table, not moving. His right leg was in pretty bad shape, it looked like it had been cut or something and there was a pool of blood dripping onto the floor.

"Raph!" Leo shook his brother, trying to wake him up, "Raph wake up!"

Donnie figured out the mechanism to his bindings and they snapped open. He wrapped up Raph's leg with a cloth he found nearby.

"What the hell . . ." The turtles spun around at the sound of a new voice.

"Hey, it's the Whitten girl that was captured!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Oh, shit," Laura Whitten said.

"What happened to Raph," Leo said, eyes suspicious. He remembered his conversation with Splinter, Laura Whitten may not be in innocent victim she first appeared to be. Laura Whitten took a step back, fear in her eyes.

"I, I don't know what you're talking abo—" Leo jumped forward, drawing one of his katanas.

"What did you do to my brother," Leo demanded, leveling his sword to her chest.

"Leo, he's not waking up!" Mikey said, panic in his voice. Leo glanced back at his brothers trying to wake up Raph. Laura took this chance, and lunged toward a control panel. She reached for a big red button but Leo was faster. In a flash, Laura was on the ground with Leo's foot planted on her stomach, his katana in her face, as if daring her to try something again.

"Why are you helping the Foot?" Leo demanded, "Didn't they just kidnap you?"

"What I do is none of your business," Laura Whitten replied gritting her teeth.

"It is when you're experimenting on my brother." The anger Laura saw in the blue turtle's eyes was frightening, he didn't trust her at all. The whole damsel in distress image was out the window. There was no doubt in Leo's mind that this girl was his enemy.

 _Perfect_ , Laura thought.

"Leo," Donnie said, the urgency in his voice worried Leo, "I think he's been poisoned." Donnie held up a small, half empty vial he'd found on a tray next to the table along with a used syringe. Raph groaned and stirred.

 _No, not yet! Just a little longer, don't wake up yet._ Laura thought desperately.

"He's not gonna wake up," Laura grunted from under the blue turtle, trying to speed things up. Leo rounded back on her, jabbing his sword further into her soft neck.

"Can you cure it Donnie?" Leo asked, not taking his eyes off Laura Whitten.

"Not here, we have to get him back to the lair."

"Then let's go," Leo removed the tip of his sword from Laura Whitten's throat. He noticed Raph's stuff all laid out on a nearby table. He grabbed Raph's sais and T-Phone and shoved them in his belt as Donnie helped Mikey carry the unconscious Raphael toward the exit.

Leo turned one last time and glared at Laura Whitten as she leaned on a work bench for support, rubbing her neck.

"This isn't over," he assured her as the door to the lab slide shut.

"I think it just about is," Laura said to herself before she sealed the doors to the lab.

 **O**

The turtles hadn't made it far from the Laura Whitten's lab when Raph woke up.

"Flub—," Raph muttered as he was jostled around between his brothers.

"Hey, he's waking up," Donnie noticed, "set him down." Mikey propped Raph up against the wall, as his eyes opened and tried to focus.

"Guys?" Raph asked, his brothers' faces filling his field of view.

"Raph!" Mikey exclaimed, hugging his brother, "You're alive!"

"What's going on?" He tried to stand up, but Donnie pushed him back down.

"Don't move, you've been poisoned," Donnie checked Raph's eyes, "How do you feel? Any nausea? Dizziness?"

"Donnie, I'm fine," Raph pushed him away and stood up. Leo rushed forward to help him, knowing that his leg wouldn't be able to support him in its wounded state.

"You're legs pretty bad," Leo explained.

"What are you talking about?" Raph didn't feel anything.

"Dude, it was totally messed up!" Mikey said. Raph looked at the makeshift bandage on his leg and ripped if off.

"What are you doing?!" Donnie exclaimed, "You're gonna bleed ou—."

"What the . . .," Raph felt his head spin slightly as he saw all the blood. But his leg didn't hurt at all, it felt totally fine. He wiped the blood away, and found the unbroken skin underneath. No wound.

"But how—," Donnie bent down to examine his leg.

"It's fine," Raph explained, "I'm fine. Wait . . . Where's the Whitten girl?"

Leo's eyes narrowed, "Taken care of, now let's get out of here before we're spotted."

"What do mean, taken care of?" Raph blustered, "Don't tell me you just left her?"

"What was I supposed to do? She's the enemy! She poisoned you!"

"No she didn't! I told you I'm fine."

"Then why would she . . ." Leo though through the implications.

"She's not with the Foot. She's pretending to help them so she could look for her missing brother in their records," Raph remembered her face when she discovered her brother was dead, and what she said, "She's gonna do something really stupid."

Laura re-wrapped her leg that she cut on the broken glass. She was glad that the turtles got out before Red woke up. It better if they thought she was the enemy, then they wouldn't stop her from what she needed to do next.

She made sure that Red's brothers would find him. She remembered reading in the records that one of them was real tech savvy, a genius really. Laura figured that if he had made the shell shaped phones, he should have been smart enough to include a tracker. She simply turned on the phone and waited.

She had swept aside the broken glassware and was about to try and wipe up the pools of blood when she thought of something. Red's brothers, since they were like a family, would probably try to leave quicker is they thought he was hurt. She dipped her hand into the pool of her own blood and smeared it on the sleeping turtles face.

 _Not enough, there's got to be more._

She tried collecting more from the floor, but realized it wouldn't be enough. She noticed the arrangement of medical supplies that Baxter Stockman still hadn't put away, lying on a table. She approached it and picked out a scalpel.

She eyes the edge of the blade critically. She grabbed an empty beaker and sat down in her rolling chair, crossing one leg over the other. She positioned the beaker under her leg with one hand and made a deep cut with the other. The blood dripped into the beaker at a steady rate.

Before she passed out, Laura ripped the sleeve off of one of Bessy's ugly sweaters and tied it around the wound. Good enough. She grit her teeth through the pain as she limped back to Red's side and poured the blood over his leg. It ran onto the table and pooled onto the floor.

 _That outta make them mad enough_ , Laura had thought. She almost regretted it now, her leg hurt something bad, and she was only mildly concerned about infection. But infection was the least of her problems with what she had planned.

Laura now limped over to her work space and inspected the product of the reaction she had performed before the Red's brothers showed up. In a large beaker was approximately two litres of freshly synthesized nitroglycerin, in solution with cold water and sitting in an ice bath. Nitroglycerin is a powerful and very unstable explosive which can be set off with only a little heat or agitation. It's pretty old school, but it's all Laura could think of and it's relatively easy to make. But she pulled up a video on YouTube to refresh her memory.

Laura took the beaker out of the ice bath and placed it on a hot plate.

 _Time to detonate._

She was reaching for the temperature dial when a pounding on the door started her.

She whipped around to face the door. The control panel on the wall beside the door hung in pieces where Laura had smashed it, effectively locking herself in. To be extra sure, she had stacked a number of the wooden crates against the door to act as a blockade in case anyone did manage to get the doors open.

"Whitten!" a gruff and familiar voice yelled, "Open the door!"

"Red? Shit!" He woke up faster than she predicted, he should have been out for another twenty minutes. Laura wondered if it was part of his mutation, but only temporarily. She had hoped to be done and gone by the time he put anything together. But now . . . Laura looked back at the nitroglycerin hesitantly, then made a decision and flipped the switch. The plate started to heat up.

"Why won't this stupid thing open?!" Raph pounded on the door while Donnie messed around with the panel.

"It's not responding," Donnie said, "She must have broken it from the other side."

"Oh, come on!" Raph stabbed his sai into the crack between the doors and started prying them open. "Whitten! Don't do anything stupid!"

"If you don't leave now I can't guarantee your safety!" Laura yelled through the doors.

"Come on Whitten," Leo yelled, "You can't just . . . do whatever it is you're trying to do!" Leo realized that he didn't know what she was doing, but it couldn't be good.

"Blue? You were supposed to get everyone out! You're supposed to look after your family! And now I've got two litres of nitroglycerin set on a hot plate. If you want to make it out of here, you gotta go now!"

"Nitroglycerin? Two litres! ARE YOU CRAZY!" Donnie screamed, "That's enough to blow up the whole lab and send anyone around it to an early grave!"

Raph redoubled his efforts, pulling the doors open. The image of Laura chasing off Fish Face with her puny ruler flashed through his head, how she'd defended him against Baxter Stockman when he'd tried to inject him with mutagen, how broken she looked when she found her brother. He remembered her promise before he passed out: "I'll make sure your brothers find you." She didn't want him caught up in her scheme. She had been looking out for him.

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Raph ripped the doors open and smashed through the pile of crates. He charged forward into the lab, followed closely by his brothers.

Panicked, Laura backed toward the nitroglycerin, but Red was too quick. He grabbed her arms and pinned her against him. Donnie raced forward and quickly removed the nitroglycerin from the hot plate and placed it on the counter, careful not to agitate it too much.

"What were you thinking?" Raph yelled as Laura twisted out of his grasp and glared at him.

She eyes the beaker on the table. _All it takes is a small impact . . . but they came back._ Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized what she was doing. She blinked them back, gathering her resolve. _This is for Tim. For what the Foot did to him!_

She pulled her ruler from her back pocket and threw it at the beaker, hoping to knock it off the table. But her desperate play was in vain.

"Aah!" The turtle with the purple mask slapped the ruler out of the air and it clattered to the ground. "Are you crazy!?" He yelled, "There's enough nitroglycerin in there to blow this whole place up!"

"That's kind of the point!" Laura said, emotions running wild.

"With all of us in it!"

"Then hurry up and leave," Laura stood her ground, "I'm not gonna let a bunch of snot nosed brats stop me. Not now."

"Well I'm not gonna let some snarky, stuck up mad scientist blow herself up," Raph grabbed her arm.

"Let go!" She wrenched her arm, trying to shake loose, but his grip didn't budge.

"Not likely." Raph started to pull her towards the door. To his brothers he said, "Okay, we can leave now."

With her free hand flailing, Laura grabbed something off one of the tables as she was dragged past. She slapped the long metal object against the hand that held her.

"Ouch!" Raph snatched his hand back and noticed a small trail of blood start to leak from the under the small piece of metal imbedded in his skin.

"You wanted to know what I could do with a stapler," Laura growled, holding up her weapon. She backed up towards the table where her giant beaker lay.

"Oh no you don't," the purple turtle was there again, blocking her path.

"You wanna try your luck—," Laura stopped midsentence and fell forwards. Donnie caught her in his arms.

"Was that necessary?" Raph asked Leo who had just knocked Laura out. Pressure points.

"We've wasted enough time here," the leader replied, "We need to get out of here before we're discovered."

"Wait," Raph interrupted, "you guys made it all the way down here without being spotted? When does that ever happen?"

It was at that moment where coincidentally, Baxter Stockman decided to finally make it back. With him was Fish Face and Dog Pound, under orders to report on Laura Whitten's progress. They all rushed in when they noticed the door was ripped off its hinges. They stopped midstride and took in the scene in front of them.

"Not cool bro," Mikey spoke up, drawing his nunchakus, "you totally jinxed it!" Leo rolled his eyes recalling earlier when he said the same thing to Mikey.

"Turtles?" Fish Face said, "This far down?"

"I can't believe they haven't set off any alarms," Dog Pound smiled, cracking his knuckled.

"Alright, guys," Leo said, "Focus on escaping. We're not in a position to be dragging out the fight." For once Raph didn't argue. He looked towards Laura Whitten, draped across Donnie's arms.

Then Donnie got a bad idea. "Nitroglycerin," he muttered in awe.

"You have something, Donnie?" Leo asked as the two enemy mutants slowly paced forward.

"Yeah," Donnie passed Laura Whitten over to Mikey, "but . . . just be ready to take cover."

Leo and Raph fended off the first attacks as Mikey kept guard over Laura Whitten. Donnie searched through drawers until he found something he could use; an empty syringe. He stuck the needle end into the giant beaker and sucked up about two millilitres of the dense white solution sitting underneath a layer of water that wasn't so cold anymore.

"Fire in the hole!" Donnie yelled as he threw the glass needle toward their enemies. Leo, Raph and Mikey took cover behind crates and under desks. Donnie squatted next to the table and covered his head with his hands.

The syringe shattered on the ground in between Xever and Bradford. The impact was more enough to ignite the nitroglycerin in the shaft.

 _BANG!_

Fish Face and Dog Pound screamed as they were hit by the blast. They flew in opposite directions each smashing into the walls. The explosion was short, fast and powerful as the liquid expanded to its gaseous phase at an incredible rate.

The turtles picked themselves up from their hiding places.

"Wah whoo!" Mikey exclaimed, "That was awesome! Donnie, do it again." Raph slapped the back of Mikey's head.

"Let's go, before they get back up," Leo said.

"Oh, they won't be getting up for a while," Donnie said with a smile.

"Well we should still leave before-,"

 _BEEP BEEP BEEP_

"Before one of those," Leo sighed. The turtles had been too busy dealing with the mutants to notice Baxter Stockman had snuck around to the control panel and pushed a big red button.

"Dude, that's gotta be a record," Mikey said smiling.

 **A/N: Hoo, that was a long one. And look at that, notes at the beginning and end of the chapter, I'm on a role. Anyway, I just want to mention that the amount of nitroglycerin that exploded would have been enough to kill Dog Pound and Fish Face not just stun them, and would probably at least injure the turtles, especially Leo and Raph since they were closer to the enemies. But I figures it wouldn't be good if I start killing people off. So yeah. And yes, there are actual YouTube videos showing you how to make the stuff, but I repeat** **DO NOT** **try to make it at home. Dat's it fa now.**


	12. Chapter 12-Finding a Moron (FINAL)

**A/N: So I realize that I haven't really described what Laura's wearing at this point, so I'll just put it out there that she's wearing a lab coat and her hair is still in braids. Also, remember back when she was in the van after she got kidnapped? Details that were forgotten rise to the surface and actually serve a purpose! Who'd a thunk.**

Chapter 12: Finding a Moron (FINAL)

"What do we do with her now?" Mikey asked.

The turtles stood in a circle on a roof top far away from Shredder's lair. They had escaped from the underground lab with little difficulty, mostly bots and a few humans. Karai had made an appearance, but they managed to get by her with a smoke bomb, choosing to retreat instead of fight. They left her coughing and cursing, calling them cowards, blah blah blah.

Now that they had time to think, they had to decide what to do with the girl scientist. She was still unconscious and was lying propped up against a heating unit. Her lab coat was dirty and her braids were falling out.

"Do we take her back to the lair?" Donnie asked, "Or wait for her to wake up?"

"Wouldn't it be best to just bring her home?" Mikey put in.

"But what if the Foot come looking for her again? They know where she lives," Raph asked. He had grown to like the crazy girl, and the idea of just leaving her on her own didn't sit well with him.

"I don't think we should bring her back to the lair, but we can't leave her alone either," Leo said.

"Why don't we bring her to Aprils?" Donnie asked. April O'Neil, the girl Donnie was crushing on. Recently, her father had been mutated into a giant bat-like creature. April had blamed the turtles when she learned that they had released a large shipment of mutagen over the city, but she had come to forgive them after a nasty encounter with some Foot Bots.

"Good," Leo said, "April can call us when she wake—." He stopped midsentence and listened. What was that? Vibrating? A phone! Someone's phone was vibrating nearby, but there was no one else around. His brothers were all together, it wasn't any of their T-Phones. . .

As one, they all looked toward the sleeping figure of Laura Whitten.

"You mean they didn't take her phone?" Donnie asked.

Leo knelt beside her and checked the pockets of her lab coat. He came out with a pair of safety goggles, a few pens, a rubber band and a . . . ruler? "Where's it coming from?"

"Dude's," Mikey said, pointing, "her foot." Sure enough, Laura Whitten's foot was slightly vibrating.

Leo pulled off her shoe and a touch screen phone fell into his hands, just in time for the call to go to voice mail.

"Laura, it's mom," the voice of an older woman sounded over the line, "I hope you're safe. I haven't heard from you, even though you said you'd call. I know you're trying your best to find Tim, but I don't want to end up losing you too." The woman's voice cracked. "Just make sure you come home safely. I know you don't want me to worry, but I can't help it when you go off the grid like this. I'm sure there's another way to go about this. I love you honey. Come home safe."

"Guys . . ." Leo said, almost afraid to believe what he just heard.

"Tim?" Donnie asked, as the pieces fell into place.

"It can't be," Raph said.

"Pizza . . ." Mikey said seriously before Raph slapped the back of his head, "Oww!"

"Donnie," Leo said, "you said her brother disappeared four months ago, right?"

"Yeah," Donnie replied nervously, "right around the time we ran into him again."

"Ran into who?" Mikey asked, not getting any of it.

"Ugh," Raph sighed, "The Pulverizer! Timothy is Laura's brother."

"Whaaat?! No waaay," Mikey insisted, "They look nothing alike."

"It doesn't—," Donnie started, but Leo interrupted him.

"No, Mikey's right. We can't just assume that it's him," he said, "I'm sure there's a lot of guys names Timothy in the Foot Clan. Raph, did she tell you anything when you were there?"

"Nothing helpful," Raph said, thinking back, "The only thing I knew for sure was how determined she was to find him. But when she saw her brother was dead . . ." Raph couldn't continue. He looked toward Laura Whitten again and was started when their eyes met. Her stare was as scary as her ruler, which she had clenched in one of her hands.

"Uhh," Raph stuttered, not sure what to say. The others turned to see what threw off Raph and they were just as startled when Laura stood up slowly and limped over to Leo. She looked him in the eyes before swiping her phone out of his hands.

She turned her stony gaze on each turtle in turn, crossing her arms, waiting for them to say something. She was taller than all of them, except Donatello. But that didn't stop her from intimidating him too.

They all shrunk away except for Raph who held her gaze, also crossing his arms. They stood stalemate for a while.

"What was that about someone named Timothy?" Laura finally broke the silence.

"Well, he actually goes by The Pulveriser," Mikey chipped in.

Laura's face fell slightly as she heard the name. She groaned and face palmed, "He actually used that stupid name!"

"Wait . . . the Pulveriser is actually your brother?" Raph asked, "How does that work? He's a . . ." Raph left his sentence hanging, realizing it probably wasn't the best idea to insult this girl's brother.

"Moron? Idiot? Complete and utter doofus?" Laura listed off, her voice rising, "You don't have to tell me, I am very, _very_ aware of what he's like." She lowered her voice, her eyes starting to water, "What do you know?"

"Well for starters," Mikey said, "He's back home right now in Donnie's lab."

Laura's head shot up. "What? He's where? You mean, he's okay? You better not be shitting me." Her voice was full of a new sort of hope.

"Well, define okay," Mikey said. Raph nudged him to shut him up.

"But, he's alive! Right?"

"Yes, he's alive," Leo said, taking over. It was never a good idea to let Mikey lead the conversation for too long. "Right Donnie, the Pulveriser is doing just fine." Leo looked towards Donnie.

The purple turtle had hung back, eyes downcast, a look of guilt eating through his stomach.

 _He has a family,_ Donnie thought, _and what have I been doing? Trying to fix a problem to impress a girl? What kind of person is that? I shouldn't have left it this long. I should have—_

His thoughts were interrupted when Leo called his name again. "Donnie?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Tim's just great," Donnie said half-heartedly.

Laura crossed her arms, stuck her hip out and tapped her ruler menacingly, "What are you not telling me?" she asked between clenched teeth. The protective older sister came out again. Tim's alive, but he apparently isn't all right.

"It would be better to show you," Donnie said, still not meeting Laura's eyes.

"Well fuck!"

The turtles brought Laura back to the lair to reunite her with her brother. They left her alone in the lab with Donnie, who felt it was his responsibility to explain the situation to her.

Laura now stood in front of a tall metal container with a glass viewing window. Inside was an array of mashed organs, cluttered around a brain with two tentically eye balls floating around. Or, they would be floating, if the whole thing wasn't frozen solid.

"How long did you say he's been frozen," she asked the purple turtle, Donatello she remembered. Too long. So is Purple. Grape! Grapes are purple . . . sort of.

"A couple weeks now," Grape said, his face sad as he looked at the remnants of the girl's brother.

Laura heaved a sigh. She crossed her arms and twisted her face into one of deep thought.

Donnie stood by awkwardly. Should he say something? Apologize for letting her brother get mutated? She hadn't asked about it at all, but she deserved to know, didn't she?

Laura came to a conclusion. She nodded to herself and kicked out, planning her foot on the glass as if kicking Timothy in the stomach. "You, dear brother," she said pointing at the gelatinous mess, "are a moron."

Turning towards Grape she swung her arms behind her head and leaned back, "Thanks for looking after him. You've a pretty nice set up here."

Thanks? Donnie was confused, she should be angry with him not thanking him. She didn't understand.

"It—it's not quite—," Donnie started to explain, but Laura held up a hand, silencing him.

"Before you tell me what happened, because I'm sure there's a good story behind this, let me tell you something about my idiot of a brother." Laura looked at Grape, he almost looked scared of what she was going to say. Laura smiled to herself, familiar with the feeling.

"Tim was always a special kid," Laura said leaning against the cold container, "from an early age, he was hopeless, but his imagination was incredible. He would dream of being a superhero and foiling evil villains. Even when he got older, he kept it up. If he came across a situation where someone needed help, he would try to 'wow' the crowd with his superpowers. He ended up in the hospital a couple of times, but he never learned.

"Tim's got this thing, where once he gets really into something, you can't get him out. There was this one time, he was all into airplanes and being a pilot. Well, we were in the airport heading to Disney for a vacation and Tim thought he should be the one to fly the plane. I mean sure, he was only eight, but he'd watched all sorts of airplane movies. In his mind, he was an expert. He snuck onto one of the airplanes and started messing with the controls . . . well, all I'll say is security wasn't happy.

"What I'm trying to get at here, is that what happens to Tim is usually Tim's fault. I don't know what happened, but I can tell that you care about this idiot, and I appreciate it. I really do. There aren't many people who would put up with someone as hard headed as Timmy. So thank you."

Donnie let her words sink in for a moment. "He really is an idiot," Donnie said smiling.

"That he is!" Laura exclaimed turning to look at her brother again. "So what is this?" she gestured to the solidified mass, "You say he's frozen, but shouldn't he have melted by now?"

"It is melting," Grape explained, "just very slowly. If left alone, I calculated that he should completely de-thaw in about seventy years."

"Yikes. So, how do we fix it?"

"We?" Donnie asked.

"Well you don't expect me to just leave my frozen blob of a brother problem for someone else to solve on their own. That would be rude. And no fun."

"So . . ."

"So it means we're partners now, Grape," Laura said, extending a hand.

Donnie smiled and took her hand in his and they shook. "Wait, Grape?"

* * *

 **A/N: Fin. For now at least. Stay tuned to the next story in this Timmy arc; Fixing Tim, or check out Found Tim, now what? for some one shots about Laura's adjustment to life in New York. Rest assured there will be more to come. Join Laura and the turtles next time as they do more stuff and piss off more bad guys. I'm getting excited already.**


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